A Communicative Grammar of English

A Communicative Grammar of English

Third Edition

Geoffrey Leech and Jan Svartvik

First published 1975 by Pearson Education Limited

Second edition 1994

Third edition first published in Great Britain 2002

Published 2013 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright © 2002, Taylor & Francis.

The rights of Geoffrey Leech and Jan Svartvik to be identified as Authors of this Work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notices

Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.

ISBN 13: 978-0-582-50633-6 (pbk)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

A CIP catalog record for this book can be obtained from the Library of Congress

Typeset in 9/12pt Stone Serif by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong

Contents

Preface

Symbols

Part One: A guide to the use of this book

Introduction

The way this book is organized

Varieties of English

Grammar in spoken and written English

Intonation

A note on phonetic symbols

Geographical and national varieties

Levels of usage: formal and informal English

Part Two: Grammar in use

Section A Concepts

Referring to objects, substances and materials

Concrete and abstract

Amount or quantity

Definite and indefinite meaning

Relations between ideas expressed by nouns

Restrictive and non-restrictive meaning

Time, tense and aspect

Present time

Past time

The progressive aspect

Future time

Summary

Time-when

Duration

Frequency

Place, direction and distance

Manner, means and instrument

Cause, reason and purpose

Condition and contrast

Degree

Role, standard and point of view

Comparison

Addition, exception and restriction

Subject matter: about and on

Section B Information, reality and belief

Statements, questions and responses

Omission of information

Reported statements and questions

Denial and affirmation

Agreement and disagreement

Fact, hypothesis and neutrality

Degrees of likelihood

Attitudes to truth

Section C Mood, emotion and attitude

Emotive emphasis in speech

Describing emotions

Volition

Permission and obligation

Influencing people

Friendly communications

Vocatives

Section D Meanings in connected discourse

Linking signals

Linking clauses and sentences

‘General purpose’ links

Cross-reference and omission

Presenting and focusing information

Order and emphasis

Part Three: A–Z in English grammar

Adjective patterns

Adjectives

Adjective or adverb?

Adjectives as heads

Adverbials

Adverbs

Apposition

Articles

Auxiliary verbs

Clauses

Cleft sentences

Commands

Comment clauses

Comparison

Complements

Concord

Coordination

Demonstratives

Determiners

Exclamations

Gender

Genitive

Interrogatives

Introductory it

Introductory there

Irregular verbs

Main verbs

Nationality words

Negation

Nominal clauses

Noun phrases

Number

Numerals

Objects

Operators

Passives

Personal and reflexive pronouns

Phrasal and prepositional verbs

Plurals

Postmodifiers

Premodifiers

Prepositional phrases

Prepositions and prepositional adverbs

Pronouns

Pronunciation of endings

Proper nouns and names

Quantifiers

Questions

Reciprocal pronouns

Relative clauses

Sentences

Some-words and any-words

Spelling changes

Subjects

Subjunctives

Subordination

Verb patterns

Verb phrases

Word-classes

Zero

Index

Based on

A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language

by Randolph Quirk,

Sidney Greenbaum,

Geoffrey Leech,

Jan Svartvik

Preface

A Communicative Grammar of English has established itself as both an authoritative and an innovative grammar. This thoroughly revised third edition gives increased emphasis on spoken English and makes more use of real examples based on corpus data. We have also tried to make the presentation more ‘pedagogical’ by giving simpler explanations, in providing more corpus examples (from Longman Corpus Network), and in making clear the distinctions between major and minor points.

Another innovation is the accompanying new Workbook by Edward Woods and Rudy Coppieters which will help students to ‘internalize’ the contents of grammar.

The basic design of the book remains the same as in the second edition, including the numbering of sections. The book is divided into three parts:

This book is partly based on A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (Longman, 1985) by Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech and Jan Svartvik. However, it cannot be regarded as a condensed version of that larger work since its arrangement is totally different, and it contains additional material (especially in Part Two). On the other hand, the structural or formal aspect of grammar is less comprehensively treated here than in the larger work and also in A Student’s Grammar of the English Language (Longman, 1990) by Sidney Greenbaum and Randolph Quirk. We have therefore added to each entry in Part Three a reference to the most relevant sections of A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, so that, if required, a more detailed treatment of the topic can be consulted in that book. A more recent grammar using the same general framework, which can be consulted especially on matters of frequency, language variety and conversational grammar, is Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (1999) by Douglas Biber, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad and Edward Finegan.

We have attempted to simplify grammatical terminology and classifications as far as possible, so that the terms and categories treated in Part Three do not in every case correspond to the same terms in the Comprehensive Grammar.

Lancaster and Lund, August 2002

Symbols

( )	Items in round brackets are optional, i.e. the sentence is acceptable also if the bracketed words are left out: Susan said she would call back but she didn’t (do so). can be read either as … but she didn’t do so or as … but she didn’t Round brackets are also used for cross-references: ‘(see 408)’ means ‘see section 408 in this grammar’ ‘(see CGEL 14.2)’ means ‘see A Comphrehensive Grammar of the English Language, section 14.2’
[ ]	Numerals in square brackets appear after examples when required for cross-reference: As in sentence [5] … Square brackets are also used to separate items, such as two adverbials: We go [to bed] [early].
/	A slash indicates a choice of items, such as between some- or any-pronouns: Did somebody/anybody phone?
{ }	Braces indicate a range of choices, such as between different relative constructions:
~	A tilde indicates ‘roughly equivalent’, e.g. active and passive: They published this paper in 1999. ~ This paper was published in 1999. A tilde is also used between related forms, e.g. verb forms or comparative forms: give ~ gave ~ given big ~ bigger ~ biggest
< >	Angle brackets are used around variety labels (see 44–55): <formal>, <informal>    <spoken>, <written> <BrE>, <AmE>             <polite>, <familiar>
*	An asterisk signifies that what follows is not ‘good English’, i.e. it is unacceptable usage: We can say Ann’s car, BUT NOT *the car of Ann
//	Slashes enclose phonemic transcriptions (see 43): lean /li:n/     leant /lent/
'	A stress mark is placed before the stressed syllable of a word: 'over                     (stress on the first syllable) temp'tation          (stress on the second syllable) transfor'mation   (stress on the third syllable)
—	Underlined syllables carry the nuclear tone (see 38): How could you dò that?
`	A falling tone: yès
´	A rising tone: yés
ˇ	A fall-rise tone: yěs
|	A single vertical bar indicates tone unit boundary (see 37): | I àlmost phoned them úp and said | Come a bit_làter |
‖	A double bar separates <BrE> from <AmE> usage: spelling: colour ‖ color pronunciation:
S	subject (see 705)
V	verb phrase (see 735)
O	object (see 608)
C	complement (see 508)
A	adverbial (see 449)
SVO	subject + verb phrase + object
SVC	subject + verb phrase + complement
SVA	subject + verb phrase + adverbial

PART ONE

A guide to the use of this book

Introduction

  1   It is sometimes argued that grammar is not important in a communicative approach to language. However, we take the view that communicative competence rests on a set of composite skills, one of which is grammatical:

There are several reasons for emphasizing the communication aspects of learning English grammar as we do in this book. Here, let us consider four reasons.

A new angle

  2   The type of student we have had in mind when writing this book is fairly advanced, for example a first-year student at a university or college of education. Often, such students already have grounding in the grammar of the language after several years of school English. Yet their proficiency in actually using the language may be disappointing. This, we believe, may be partly due to ‘grammar fatigue’.

The student may therefore benefit from looking at grammar from another angle, where grammatical structures are systematically related to meanings, uses and situations, as we attempt to do in Part Two: ‘Grammar in use’. In this way we expect students to improve and extend their range of competence and their use of communication strategies in the language. In Part Three, called ‘A-Z in English grammar’, the book also supplies essential information about grammatical forms and structures, and can therefore be used as a general reference book or source book on English grammar. There we give references to relevant parts of A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, a standard grammatical description of English, where the advanced student can find extra information on topics which cannot be fully covered in this book.

A better organization

  3   The conventional way of presenting English grammar in terms of structure also has a certain drawback in itself. For example, in such a grammar, notions of time may be dealt with in as many as four different places: under the tense of the verb, under time adverbs, under prepositional phrases denoting time, and under temporal conjunctions and clauses. The student who is primarily interested in making use of the language rather than in learning about its structure (and this is true for the majority of foreign students) is not likely to find such an arrangement particularly helpful. In A Communicative Grammar of English, the central part deals with grammar in use, which makes it possible to bring similar notions, such as those involving time, together in one place.

Spoken English

  4   An important element in the communicative approach is the student’s ability to use and understand the spoken language. This emphasis on speech is sometimes misunderstood, so that the communicative method is taken to imply focus on the spoken language. We do not share this view: ‘communication’ means communication in both speech and writing. Yet, since traditional grammar tends to concentrate on written language, we think it is important for a communicative grammar to describe and exemplify both types of language use. (On grammar in spoken and written English, see Sections 17–32.)

Corpus data

  5   The examples given in grammars have often been made up by grammarians rather than taken from real language in actual use. A made-up example may well serve to illustrate a particular grammatical point, but it can appear stilted or ‘wooden’, distancing the learning of grammar from real live usage. This is no doubt one reason why grammar is often considered to be a less important part of language in the communicative approach. We take the view that the grammar of a language is indeed of central concern to students, since it describes what makes language tick – how it can carry the meanings we want to communicate. In this revised edition of our grammar we have illustrated grammatical statements with the help of hundreds of authentic examples from English language corpora, especially Longman Corpus Network. Corpora stored on computers provide access to many millions of words of spoken and written material in modern English. However, the corpus examples sometimes have to be simplified by the omission of distracting material. There can also be an advantage – for example, where precise contrasts have to be clearly indicated – in making use of made-up examples. We believe that in this book we have achieved the right balance between the use of authentic examples and the use of the clearest illustrative material.

The way this book is organized

  6   The book is divided into three parts as follows:

Note that the book is organized in consecutively numbered sections (1–747), for ease of reference. At the end of the book, there is a detailed index which gives section numbers, rather than pages, as the most convenient means of looking up what you want.

We now give a brief overview of these three parts and what they contain.

Part One: A guide to the use of this book (sections 1–56)

  7   In this first part, we try to explain the design of the book, and the apparatus of information you need in order to understand it, and to find what you need.

One of the major things you will need is a guide to the different labels we use for different kinds or varieties of English (44–56). Where English gives us a choice of grammatical forms or structures for a given purpose, the different structures available are often not equivalent, since they belong to different ‘styles’ or ‘varieties’. An important part of communicative grammar is knowing the appropriate choice according to the situation you are in. For example, if you are communicating in speech your choices of grammar will often be different from the choices you make in writing. And when you are writing, if you are communicating in an informal situation, your choices will often be different from those that you choose in a formal situation. Throughout the book, therefore, we make use of ‘variety labels’ such as <spoken>, <written>, <informal> and <formal>, whenever we want to make a point about the appropriateness of a grammatical form for this or that situation. Remember that the angle brackets <…>, whenever they occur in this book, signal this kind of appropriate choice.

One particular purpose of Part One is to explain and illustrate the symbols used in representing features of the spoken language. Most of us are used to the conventions for representing the written language on paper – the use of spelling, punctuation, and so on. But how do we capture on paper the nature of spoken language? For this, not only do we need symbols representing vowels and consonants in speech (see 43) but, more important, we need symbols for representing features of stress and intonation, which are closely integrated with the grammar of spoken language (33–42). H. E. Palmer in his well-known pioneering A Grammar of Spoken English (first edition 1924) went to the lengths of presenting the grammar of speech through phonetic transcription of all features of the language. This brave effort was a valuable corrective to the assumption – all too common in those times – that grammar was synonymous with the study of the written language. But it increased the difficulty of using the book enormously, and paradoxically impeded the thing it was intended to promote – a widespread appreciation of the features of spoken language. Our position, in contrast to this, is that we need to reduce to a minimum the use of special symbols which students need to understand the facts of grammar. This means using phonetic symbols and symbols of stress and intonation rather sparingly, and in any case, only where they are important to understanding the use of grammar in the spoken language.

Part Two: Grammar in use (57–434)

  8   Part Two is the central part and largest part of the grammar. It is also the part which justifies our title ‘Communicative Grammar’, by presenting grammar through the eyes of the communicator. The question it tries to answer, in as much detail as space permits, is: Given that I want to communicate certain meanings in certain situations or contexts, which grammatical forms and structures can I use?

Communication is not a simple process. It is helpful, for our purpose, to think of four circles, one inside another, representing different kinds of meaning function and the different ways of organizing such functions. The four circles in the figure below correspond to Sections A–D in Part Two.

The right-hand column, stating ‘types of formal unit’, should not be interpreted too strictly. It is useful to see the relation between the different layers of meaning and a hierarchy of grammatical units, but there is much overlap of the types of unit, and other factors are important. For example, intonation has an important role in the expression of meaning in Sections B, C and D.

Section A: Concepts (57–239)

  9   The first circle is that of notional or conceptual meaning. Here we find the basic meaning categories of grammar: for example, ‘number’, ‘definite meaning’, ‘amount’, ‘time’, ‘manner’, ‘degree’. Such terms point to aspects of our experience of the world. The structural units we deal with here are smaller than the sentence, i.e. words, phrases, and clauses.

Section B: Information, reality and belief (240–97)

  10   The second circle represents logical aspects of communication. Here we make use of the categories of Section A, but we judge them and respond to them in the light of concepts such as truth and falsehood, which we depend on in giving and receiving information. Such categories as ‘statements, questions and responses’ belong here. So do ‘affirmation and denial’, ‘possibility’ and ‘certainty’. The formal unit we are chiefly concerned with is the sentence.

Section C: Mood, emotion and attitude (298–350)

  11   The third circle involves the social dimension of communication, relating grammar to the attitudes and behaviour of speaker and hearer. At the speaker’s end, language expresses attitudes and emotions, and is a means of carrying out social goals. At the receiving end, language can control or influence the actions and attitudes of the hearer. This ‘controlling’ aspect of communication is performed through such speech acts as commanding, requesting, advising, promising. Although the logical aspect of meaning (Section B) is made use of, it is extended, or perhaps even ‘distorted’ to perform different kinds of social function. Thus, on a logical level, a question is a means of eliciting information – of determining what is true and what is false. But questions can be adapted ‘pragmatically’ for the purpose of making an offer:

Would you like some more?

or making a suggestion:

Why don’t you come with me?

or expressing a strong feeling:

Wasn’t it a marvellous play?

The unit of language we are mainly dealing with here is the utterance, which may or may not correspond to a sentence in length.

Section D: Meanings in connected discourse (351–434)

  12   The fourth circle deals with the organization of communication. The question here is How shall we arrange our thoughts?, i.e. in what order shall we put them, and how shall we bind them together, in order to communicate in the most appropriate or effective way? Grammar is flexible enough to offer a considerable choice in these matters. This is the aspect of the use of grammar which takes account of ‘context’ in the sense of ‘the preceding or following aspects of the discourse’. Looking at sentences in isolation is not sufficient: the unit here, therefore, is the text or discourse.

The four circles of the diagram represent a rational progression from the most limited and detailed aspect of meaning to the most inclusive. This design underlies Part Two, but we have not stuck to it too rigidly. To have done so would often have meant inconvenient repetitions of material in different sections. In dealing with emotive meaning (Section C), for example, we have moved directly from the expression of emotion to the description of emotion, even though it might be argued that the description of emotion belongs more naturally to conceptual meaning (Section A). The overriding consideration, in arranging the material, is that of dealing with related communicative choices together.

Part Three: A–Z in English grammar (435–747)

  13   If Part Two is the main ‘communicative’ part of the book, Part Three is complementary to it. We need to know not only the communicative choices which grammar offers (Part Two), but the structural grammatical choices through which communication is channelled (Part Three). The two sets of choices are to a large extent independent of one another, and so are dealt with separately. The entries in Part Three are arranged alphabetically, for ease of access, and will be particularly useful in enabling students to find detailed explanations of grammatical terms (e.g. ‘relative clause’, ‘phrasal verb’) whose meaning may be unclear to them.

Cross-references and index

  14   The reference apparatus is a very important part of every grammar book. In this grammar, with its innovative arrangement, it is essential to have numerous cross-references, and a comprehensive index. We have aimed to provide both. The index distinguishes between different kinds of references:

In this way, multiple access is given to the information contained within the grammar.

Varieties of English

  15   To use a language properly, we of course have to know the grammatical forms and structures and their meanings. These are the subjects of Parts Two and Three. But we also have to know what forms of language are appropriate for given situations, and for this purpose you will find in both those parts ‘variety labels’ such as <spoken>, <written>, <AmE> for American English, <BrE> for British English, <formal>, <informal>, <polite>, <familiar>. These labels are reminders that the English language is, in a sense, not a single language, but many languages, each belonging to a particular geographical area or to a particular kind of situation. The English used in formal written communication is in some ways different from the English used in informal conversation; the English used in the United States is somewhat different from the English used in Great Britain, in Australia, and so on. Obviously, in a general book of this kind we must ignore many less important differences. The purpose of this section of Part One is to explain briefly what is meant by the variety labels that you will meet, and to illustrate the varieties they refer to. If you wish to follow up a particular variety in detail, you may do so by means of the entries for variety labels in the index.

The ‘common core’

  16   Luckily for the learner, many of the features of English are found in all, or nearly all, varieties. We say that general features of this kind belong to the common core of the language. Take, for instance, the three words children, offspring and kids. Children is a ‘common core’ term; offspring is liable to occur in a rather formal situation (and is used of animals as well as human beings); kids is likely to occur in an informal or familiar situation. It is safest, when in doubt, to use the ‘common core’ term: thus children is the word you would want to use most often. But part of knowing English is knowing in what circumstances it would be possible to use offspring or kids instead of children. Let us take another example, this time from grammar:

Feeling tired, she went to bed early. <rather formal>	[1]
As she felt tired, she went to bed early.	[2]
She felt tired, so she went to bed early. <rather informal>	[3]

Sentence [2] is a ‘common core’ construction. It could, for example, be used either in speech or in writing. Sentence [1] is rather formal, and typical of written language. Sentence [3] is rather informal, and is likely to occur in relaxed conversation. In this book, you can assume that features of English given no variety label belong to the ‘common core’.

Grammar in spoken and written English

Different transmission systems

  17   English, like other languages, makes use of two channels: speech and writing. They have different transmission systems. Speech is transmitted by sound-waves, originated in speaking and received in hearing. Writing is transmitted by letters and other visible marks, produced in writing and received in reading. Good, all-round communicative competence involves all four skills:

Spoken and written English do not have different grammars, but the shared English grammar is used differently on the two channels. For the benefit of those who want to acquire good, all-round communicative competence we will therefore indicate in this book many such differences in the use of English grammar.

What is relevant to this book is how the different systems affect the grammar of spoken and written English. We treat the two channels as of equal importance. But sometimes, when we give intonation marks (see 33) or present examples of dialogue, it will be clear that we are thinking of spoken English.

Transitory speech and permanent writing

  18   Normal speech is processed in real time and is transitory, leaving no trace other than what we may remember. Our memory being what it is, this is often limited to just the gist of a conversation or some particularly interesting points in a lecture. Writing, on the other hand, takes longer to produce and can be read not just once but many times. Writing leaves a permanent record. Moreover, writing that is made public in some way, such as in printed books and journals, leaves a record which can be read by millions of contemporary readers, and also by later generations.

Such differences between the two channels affect our language use in several ways. One is that spoken communication requires fast, almost instantaneous production and understanding. On the other hand, when we write, we usually have time to revise, check and rewrite what we have written. Likewise, when we receive a piece of writing we can read it, reread it, ponder over it, and discuss it.

  19   In spontaneous speech we have no time to prepare what to say in advance, but we must shape our message as we go along. Here is an example of such speech <in BrE> (a dash – indicates silent pause):

On the audio-tape, this recording sounds natural and is quite easy to follow. However, when transcribed as here in written form, it looks fragmented, rambling, unstructured and is rather difficult to read. In this short extract from a conversation, we can note several features typical of informal talk:

In the next sections we will discuss why such features are so common in speaking.

Interactive and non-interactive uses of English

  20   Spoken language is the most widely used form of language. Within spoken language there are many variations, but we will distinguish two main uses of spoken English. The first, and by far the most common use, is conversation with two or more participants taking their turns when talking to each other, either face-to-face or via some technical device such as a telephone or computer. For the foreign student of English, this is a particularly important type to learn because it is the most common everyday use of speech. Moreover, it cannot be prepared in advance: conversation is impromptu and spontaneous.

The second use of spoken English occurs with one person speaking at a time to an audience of people who do not talk back but just listen. We call this public speaking in contrast with conversation, which is private speaking. Conversation is typically interactive, and public speaking is less interactive, or even not interactive at all. Public speaking is intermediate between conversation and writing, in that a speech can be (and often is) prepared in advance in writing, and read aloud to an audience. In public speaking we include such spoken varieties as lectures, radio talks and TV news broadcasts. The figure below shows some of the different uses of English, and indicates that the relation between spoken and written English is more like a scale than a simple division. On the whole, the varieties of language towards the top of the diagram are more interactive than the varieties towards the bottom.

Cooperation in conversation

  21   In a conversation, the speaker can check if the listener has understood by asking ‘Do you see what I mean?’, and the listener can ask the speaker for clarification: ‘What did you mean by that?’, etc. In writing we have no such direct contact between writer and reader and, in writing made public (as in newspapers, periodicals and books), we may not even have any idea who will ever read what we write. This gives speaking an advantage in providing us with an opportunity for immediate feedback, to find out whether our message has been properly received, or is acceptable. This feedback can be verbal (yes, uhuh, I see, etc.) or non-verbal (a nod, raised eyebrows, etc.).

But, usually, a conversation is not just a matter of giving and receiving information. It is also, perhaps primarily, a form of social interaction, and participant cooperation is indeed a basic feature of conversation. There exists a give-and-take process which is manifested in several ways.

  22   One case of participant cooperation is turn-taking, which means sharing out the role of speaker in the conversation, as one speaker takes a turn, then another. In this extract from a <BrE> conversation, a young girl [A] is telling a female friend [B] about her recent very pleasant holidays in Spain (dash – indicates silent pause):

[A]	but it’s so nice and relaxed down there I mean compared with London I mean I I I I – I found myself – going into shops and people smiled at you and I – I was quite taken aback genuinely I mean I
[B]	m m
[A]	erm you know the feeling you you you you
[B]	yes one asks oneself if you’re putting on this deadpan face you know
[A]	yes
[B]	yes
[A]	and these people smile and you – well you don’t know how to react at first because it’s so strange
[B]	yes I felt that in Scotland – yes (laughs)

A smooth conversation is characterized by a general atmosphere of cooperation and harmony. Little expressions such as you know and I mean appeal for understanding and sympathy, and yes and m m express interest and support the speaker. Multiple repetitions, such as I I I I and you you you you, signal the girl’s excitement as she tries to keep the conversational ‘floor’ and tell her story.

  23   Cooperation is largely achieved by using discourse markers – variously called interactional signals, discourse particles, backchannels and inserts, which are a number of words and expressions typical of English spoken discourse. Below we list some such interactive expressions which are frequent in English conversation. We put them under three headings, indicating a scale from ‘only interactive functions’ (which are above all characteristics of conversation) to ‘also interactive functions’ (which are more grammatical and frequently used also in public speaking and writing; see 249):

Most of these expressions are commonly used in conversations among native speakers, and it is therefore important for the foreign learner to be familiar with them and be able to use them quickly, and appropriately, in different situations. Interactive expressions may add little information, but they tell us something of the speakers’ attitude to their audience and to what they are saying.

Some grammatical features of spoken English

  24   Tag questions. A highly typical feature of speech is tag questions (see further 684). There are two main types:

Positive + negative: We’ve met before, haven’t we?

Negative + positive: We haven’t met before, have we?

Tag questions fit in nicely with the need for cooperation between speakers and the feature of turn-shift from one speaker to another. First the speaker asserts something (e.g. It was a couple of years ago), then invites the listener’s response (wasn’t it?), as in this example from the beginning of a conversation:

[A]	We’ve met before, haven’t we?
[B]	Yes, we certainly have. It was a couple of years ago, wasn’t it?
[A]	Oh yes, now I remember: at the Paris exhibition. How are you these days?

  25   Ellipsis. In some cases part of a sentence can be omitted, for example:

Hope you’re well.	~ I hope you’re well.
Want a drink?	~ Do you want a drink?
Better be careful.	~ You/We’d better be careful.
Sounds fine to me.	~ That sounds fine to me.

This type of omission, which is called initial ellipsis, is another characteristic of informal talk. It helps to create the sort of relaxed atmosphere that we try to achieve in a cooperative social situation.

  26   Coordination and subordination. Coordination (see 515) of clauses is a characteristic of speech:

Hurt yourself? Okay, just rub it a little bit and then it will be okay.

[1]

The and here expresses a condition, equivalent to if in a subclause (see 709):

If you just rub it … it will be okay.

However, it is wrong to suppose that speech avoids subordination. In fact, if-clauses (see 207) are generally more common in conversation than in written language:

Yeah but if you talk to Katie and Heather you will get a different story.

[2]

Another type of subclause more common in conversation is the that-clause (see 712), especially where the that itself is omitted (‘zero that’), as in [3]–[5]:

I don’t think you can do that.	[3]
I suppose I do.	[4]
I said you can have anything on the table, okay?	[5]

In [2] above we see that the coordinator (but in this case) occurs at the beginning of a sentence or turn, and links to something in a previous turn. This is again very characteristic of spoken dialogue:

A:	Horses love carrots yeah …
B:	And horses love apples too.	[6]

Again, in [6], the coordinator And comes at the beginning of a sentence and turn. This is very different from serious written language, where the use of a coordinator at the beginning of a sentence is often regarded as ‘bad grammar’, and is usually avoided. The coordinator in [6] is typical of speech, but in writing, it would be normal to make the coordinator a link between words and phrases rather than between clauses or sentences:

Horses love apples and carrots.

On the whole, coordination at word level and phrase level is much more common in writing, while coordination at clause level is more common in speech.

  27   Finite clauses. In written English we often use non-finite and verbless clauses (see 494) as adverbials and modifiers, as in this example:

When fit, a Labrador is an excellent retriever. <rather formal, written>

Such constructions are unlikely in <informal speech>, where finite clauses are preferred, as in

~ A Labrador is an excellent retriever if it’s fit.

~ If a Labrador’s fit, it makes an excellent retriever.

Here are some other pairs of examples:

Lunch finished, the guests retired to the lounge. <rather formal, written>

~ They all went into the lounge after lunch. <more informal, spoken>

Ben, knowing that his wife was expecting, started to take a course on baby care. <rather formal, written>

~ Ben got to know his wife was expecting, so he started to take a course on baby care. <informal, spoken>

Discovered almost by accident, this substance has revolutionized medicine. <rather formal, written>

~ This stuff – it was discovered almost by accident – it’s made a really big impact on medicine. <informal, spoken>

  28   Signposts. The grammar of spoken sentences is, in general, simpler and less strictly constructed than the grammar of written sentences. In <writing> we often indicate the structure of paragraphs by such signposts or linking signals (see 352) as

firstly, secondly, finally, hence, to conclude, to summarize, e.g., viz.

Such expressions would not be used in informal talk where they would sound rather stilted and give the impression of a prepared talk. In a <spontaneous talk> we are more likely to introduce new points by such expressions as

the first thing is, and so, in other words, all the same

For example:

well – you know – the first er – thing that strikes me as odd about this whole business is – for example that …

  29   Contracted forms. When the auxiliary verbs do, have, be and some modal auxiliaries occur together with not, they can have either uncontracted or contracted forms (see 582):

do not ~ don’t	does not ~ doesn’t	did not ~ didn’t
have not ~ haven’t	has not ~ hasn’t	had not ~ hadn’t
are not ~ aren’t	is not ~ isn’t	could not ~ couldn’t
were not ~ weren’t	was not ~ wasn’t	should not ~ shouldn’t

Uncontracted (or full) forms are typical of <written, especially formal> English. The contracted forms are typical of <spoken> discourse, but they also occur in <informal writing>. In some cases there is more than one contracted form available:

I have not seen the film yet. <typical of writing>

I haven’t seen the film yet. <typical of speaking> OR

I’ve not seen the film yet. <also possible in speaking>

Later on in this book we will comment on other constructions that are used differently in <spoken, informal> and <written, formal> varieties, such as the subjunctive (see 706) and the passive (see 613).

Spelling v. pronunciation

  30   In <writing> we have to observe a number of spelling changes (see 700), when we add a suffix to a word, for example

The reason why written English has such spelling rules is often to indicate the correct pronunciation of the inflected forms with suffixes. Note, for example, the following contrasts (for phonetic symbols, see 43):

hope	~ hoping	~ hoped
hop	~ hopping	~ hopped

There are some spelling differences between British and American English: centre ‖ center, levelled ‖ leveled, etc. (see 703). There are some differences in pronunciation, too, but these are independent of the spelling differences, for example /'kΛlə || 'kΛlər/ for colour ‖ color.

In nouns with regular plural, the written distinction between the genitive plural (boys’), the genitive singular (boy’s), and also the common gender plural (boys) does not exist in the pronunciation /bɒIZ/ (see 664).

Written representation of speech

  31   In some writing representing spoken English, for example comic strips and popular fiction, we can meet the form got to or even gotta, pronounced , corresponding to <standard> have got to:

You gotta be careful with what you say. <non-standard in writing>

You’ve got to be careful with what you say. <standard in writing>

Similarly, gonna, pronounced is sometimes the written form for <standard written> (be) going to, as in

What (are) you gonna do now? <non-standard in writing>

What are you going to do now? <standard in writing>

These non-standard written representations of the spoken form reflect a typical phonetic reduction of vowels and omission of consonants in everyday speech. However, the written language rarely captures these simplifications. For example, in

They could have gone early

could have is commonly pronounced /'kʊdə/, but even in representations of the most casual speech, the non-standard written form coulda rarely occurs.

Punctuation v. chunking

  32   We become familiar with the structure of written language through normal education, but the way spoken language is structured is more difficult to observe and to study. In writing we work with sentences. But it is often hard to divide a spoken conversation (such as the extract from a conversation in 19) into separate sentences. Part of the reason is that the speakers rely more on the hearers’ understanding of context, and on their ability to interrupt if they fail to understand. Also, in ‘getting across’ their message, speakers are able to rely on features of intonation which tell us a great deal that cannot be rendered in written punctuation.

As a general comment, we may note that features marked as <informal> in this book are more likely to occur in <speech>. On the other hand, <formal> features are more likely to occur in <writing> (see further 45).

Intonation

  33   You will need some knowledge of English intonation patterns if you are to understand English grammar more fully. This is because features of intonation are important for signalling grammatical distinctions, such as that between statements and questions. For example, a sentence like They are leaving can be a statement when said with falling intonation, but a question with rising intonation:

| They are lèaving | [statement with falling tone]

| They are léaving | [question with rising tone]

Here we concentrate on explaining those features of stress and intonation which play a significant role in grammar, and which therefore need to be discussed and symbolized in this book. The features we want to explain in the following sections are these:

Stress

  34   The rhythm of English is based on stress. In connected speech, we feel the rhythm of the language in the sequence of stressed syllables. Between one stressed syllable and another there may occur one or more unstressed syllables. The stressed syllables in these examples are preceded by the stress mark ', and the unstressed syllables are unmarked:

I′ll 'ring you on the 'way to the 'airport.

It went 'off 'smoothly that 'long 'meeting of the ex'ecutive com'mittee.

This means that the syllables below printed in bold are stressed:

I’ll ring you on the way to the air port.

It went off smoothly that long meeting of the executive committee.

The normal rules for placing stress are as follows. The syllables which are stressed are:

The syllables which are unstressed are:

  35   There is no simple rule for which syllable is accented in a word which consists of more than one syllable. As we see above, accent varies from word to word, so that the accent falls on the first syllable of 'airport, but on the second syllable of com'mittee, and on the third syllable of transform'ation. The placing of stress is also variable according to sentence context, emphasis, speed of utterance, etc., and so the rules above are not without exceptions.

One point to notice is that a prepositional adverb (see 660) belongs to a major word-class, and is therefore stressed, whereas a one-syllable preposition is usually unstressed. Contrast:

'This 'bed has 'not been 'slept in. (in = preposition)

The 'injured 'man was 'carried 'in. (in = prepositional adverb)

The same contrast is sometimes seen between the particle of a prepositional verb (see 632) and the particle of a phrasal verb (see 630):

She’s re'lying on our 'help. (rely on = prepositional verb)

She’s 'putting 'on a 'new 'play. (put on = phrasal verb)

But the particle may also be unstressed:

'Make up your

In the examples in this book, stress will be marked only where it is necessary for the point illustrated.

The nucleus

  36   Not all stressed syllables are of equal importance. Some stressed syllables have greater prominence than others, and form the nucleus, or focal point, of an intonation pattern. We may describe a nucleus as a strongly stressed syllable which marks a major change of pitch direction, i.e. where the pitch goes up or down. Here is an example to indicate pitch direction:

She’s going to the States.

The change of pitch on the nucleus is indicated by an arrow:

In this example, the nucleus marks a fall in pitch towards the end of the sentence. (The step-up in pitch before the nucleus States is something which will not concern us here.) As a nucleus is always stressed, there is no need to put a stress mark before it. Often in our examples, we simply indicate the nucleus by underlining without indicating the other stressed syllables:

She’s going to the States

Tone units

  37   The basic unit of intonation in English is the tone unit. (Other names you may meet are intonation unit, information unit, and chunk.) A tone unit is a stretch of speech which contains one nucleus. It may also contain other stressed syllables, normally preceding the nucleus. The boundaries of a tone unit are marked by a vertical bar |:

| She’s going to the States |

In this example, the tone unit has the length of a whole sentence. But a sentence often contains more than one tone unit. The number of tone units depends on the length of the sentence, and the degree of emphasis given to various parts of it. This sentence

This department needs a new chairperson

would normally have one tone unit:

| This department needs a new chairperson

But it might be pronounced with two tone units:

| This department | needs a new chairperson |

The additional nucleus on this here expresses an emphasis on 'this department in contrast to other departments. The following sentence might be pronounced with either one or two or three tone units, as indicated:

| This is the kind of pressure that it’s very difficult to resist. |

| This is the kind of pressure | that it’s very difficult to resist. |

| This is the kind | of pressure | that it’s very difficult to resist. |

In general, we include tone unit boundaries in our examples only where they serve an illustrative purpose. Usually, we omit them.

Tones

  38   By tone we mean the type of pitch change which takes place on the nucleus. The three most important tones in English, and the only ones we need distinguish here, are

These sentences can also be represented in the following way:

Here are two examples of the different tones in sequences of tone units:

| It’s not like a lecture on Cháucer | or Éliot | or something of thàt |

| Our chair is very stròngly of the | that we àll ought to go on téaching | to the end of tèrm. |

The tone of a nucleus determines the pitch of the rest of the tone unit following it:

We symbolise these three tones as follows:

| but it wasn’t his fǎult. |

| but he said he was sǒrry. |

| but he didn’t mèan to dó it. |

Where the rise of the fall-rise extends to a stressed syllable after the nucleus, as in the last example, we signal the fall-rise tone by placing a fall on the nucleus and a rise on the later stressed syllable. This will make it easier for you to follow the intonation contour when you read the examples.

The meanings of tones

  39   The meanings of the tones are difficult to specify in general terms. Roughly speaking, the falling tone expresses ‘certainty’, ‘completeness’, ‘independence’. Thus a straightforward statement normally ends with a failing tone, since it asserts a fact of which the speaker is certain. It has an air of finality:

| In this lecture I want to enlarge on the relation between grammar and lèxis. |

  40   A rising tone, on the other hand, expresses ‘uncertainty’ or ‘incompleteness’ or ‘dependence’.

Here a falling tone (Nò), which indicates finality, would sound <impolite>.

  41   A fall-rise tone combines the falling tone’s meaning of ‘assertion, certainty’ with the rising tone’s meaning of ‘dependence, incompleteness’. At the end of a sentence, it often conveys a feeling of reservation. It asserts something, and at the same time suggests that there is something else to be said. There is often an implied contrast:

| That’s not mỳ | (‘it must be somebody else’s’)

[A]	| Do you like póp-music? |
[B]	| Sǒmetimes, | (‘but not in general’)
[A]	| Are you búsy? |
[B]	| Not rěally. | (‘Well, I am, but not so busy that I can’t talk to you’)

At the beginning or in the middle of a sentence, the fall-rise tone is a more forceful alternative to the rising tone, expressing the assertion of one point, together with the implication that another point is to follow:

| Mòst of the | we stayed on the bèach. |

| Most yǒung people | take plenty of èxercise. |

| He’s not a relǎxed lecturer | but he’s a lecturer. |

A meaning which can be expressed by intonation may have to be expressed by a different grammatical construction in writing (see 496). Compare:

| You don’t see a fox every dǎy. | <speech>

It is not every day that one sees a fox. <writing>

In both cases the implication is: ‘it happens quite rarely’.

Conversation in transcription

  42   After this brief survey of some basic features of spoken English and how intonation is represented in written transcription, it is time for an application of the system to a longer stretch of text than we have been able to offer in the isolated examples above. So, here again is the vivid account of the Sunday lunch (given in 19), but now with the intonation indicated as follows:

| Well I had some people to lunch on Sùnday |

and – they turned up half an hour èarly | – (laughs) –

I mean you know what [g] getting up Sùnday’s |

ànyway |

and – I’d – I was behind in any càse | –

and I’d said to them one o’clóck | –

and I ǎlmost phoned them up and said |

come a bit làter | –

and then I thought oh they’ve probably lèft by nów | –

so I | –

and – twelve | –

nôw | –

that càn’t be thém | –

and it wàs | –

and they’d they’d lèft |

plenty of |

for all their conněctions |

and they got all their conněctions |

at ónce | –

and it was annǒying |

cos they came with this – | –

you knów |

who was running all òver the place |

and they kept coming in and chàtting to mé |

and I couldn’t get òn with things |

and | I get really erm – you know when when I’m trying to còok | –

and people come and chàt |

| I get terribly put òff | –

can’t get on with things at àll |

erm – and yet you feel terribly anti-sǒcial |

if you you dò just stay in the |

ànyway |

If you read this extract aloud, giving emphasis to the pitch movements in the syllables with tone marks and making pauses where they are indicated, you will find this version less rambling and more coherent than the first version in 19. Yet the text is identical in the two versions.

This goes to show that intonation is an important part of spoken language. But, of course, we can never manage to give an adequate written representation of what real speech is like. What we can do to get a better idea of real speech – not only of what was said, but also how it was said – is at least to indicate, as here, the main features of spoken discourse – by far the most widely used form of English.

A note on phonetic symbols

  43   Phonetic symbols are used only occasionally in this book, where they are needed to illustrate a grammatical point or rule. We have tried to use a system of transcription which is not biased towards a particular kind of speech, but this is not easy since British and American English (the two national varieties we are mainly dealing with) differ more in pronunciation than in any other respect. To make things simple, we consider only one accent from each national variety: Received Pronunciation (or RP), which is commonly used as a standard accent for the learning of British English pronunciation, and General American pronunciation (GA), which has a somewhat comparable status in the United States of America. However, considering the limited use we make of phonetic symbols, other standardized varieties of speech (e.g. for Australian English) are also reasonably well represented. Phonetic symbols, where they occur, will be enclosed in slant lines, for example: /θ/, /aʊ/, /mΛst/. We use the double bar (||) to separate RP and GA pronunciations, as in for clerk.

Note

Corresponding to the <RP> diphthongs are the <GA> r-coloured diphthongs which may be transcribed: Similarly, corresponding to the <RP> long vowel /jk/ is the r-coloured vowel which may be transcribed: e.g. for bird.

Geographical and national varieties: <AmE> and <BrE>

  44   English is spoken as a first language by almost four hundred million people: in the United States of America, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the Caribbean, and other places. This means there is a great abundance of English dialectal variation throughout the world. But when we come to the study of grammar in standard varieties of English, the differences are small. Within each English-speaking country there are many differences of regional dialect, e.g. between the English spoken in the Southern States of the USA and in other parts of the same country. These differences rarely affect grammatical usage in written English or in standardized spoken English, and so we ignore them in this book.

Since the varieties of English used in the United States and in Britain are the most important in terms of population and use throughout the world, the only national varieties we shall distinguish in this book are American English <AmE> and British English <BrE>. The grammatical differences between these two varieties (in comparison with differences in pronunciation and vocabulary) are not very great, and are almost negligible in <formal, written> usage. However, some brief examples here will show the kinds of difference which exist between <AmE> and <BrE>, and which will be pointed out in Parts Two and Three.

<AmE>: The tour lasted from July through August.

<BrE>: The tour lasted from July to August (inclusive). [In <BrE> the word inclusive is sometimes added to make clear that the period includes the last-mentioned period, here August.]

On other differences see the listing in the index under <AmE> and <BrE>.

Levels of usage: formal and informal English <formal>, <informal>

  45   We turn now to the way English varies not according to geographical differences, but according to differences in the relation between speaker (or writer) and hearer (or reader). We can refer to these as levels of usage (see 15–16).

Formal language is the type of language we use publicly for some serious purpose, for example in official reports, business letters, regulations, and academic writing. Formal English is nearly always <written>, but exceptionally it is used in <speech>, for example in formal public speeches or lectures. As an example of formal English, here is an extract from a book review:

Informal language (also called ‘colloquial’) is the language of ordinary conversation, of personal letters, and of private interaction in general. Here is another extract from an informal conversation <in AmE> (see further 19 and 42):

[A]	So Larry did you manage to get any sleep beside Michelle’s crying?
[B]	I didn’t hear a thing.
[A]	Really.
[B]	Yeah.
[A]	God, I can’t believe it.
[B]	I didn’t hear a thing.
[A]	Well, it must have been around three o’clock this morning. Suddenly she couldn’t sleep.
[B]	Really?
[A]	Yeah, I think she’s getting a cold.
[B]	What did she do?
[A]	Every time I started to fall asleep she’d go Mommy, Mommy.
[B]	Nope, I didn’t hear a thing.
[A]	Well, that’s good.
[B]	I can sleep through a hurricane, I guess.

Spoken language like this is typically informal, but informal English is now used more and more also in written communication of a popular kind, for example in newspapers, magazines, advertisements and popular fiction.

An example of the formality scale

  46   The difference between <formal> and <informal> usage is best seen as a scale, rather than as a simple ‘yes or no’ distinction. Consider the following example:

There are many friends to whom one would hesitate to entrust one’s own children. <formal>

[1]

This is towards the formal end of the scale for a number of reasons:

  47   If we replaced all these features of [1] by informal equivalents, the sentence would run as follows [1a]:

There’s lots of friends who you would hesitate to entrust your own children to. <informal>

[1a]

However, it is significant that this sentence seems very unidiomatic. The reason is that a translation from one variety to another, like translation from one language to another, cannot be treated as a mechanical exercise. In practice, informal English prefers its own typical features, which include, for example, contracted forms of verbs (there’s rather than there is, etc.), omission of the relative pronoun who/whom/that, and informal vocabulary rather than more formal vocabulary such as entrust. As an example of informal English, [1b] is a more natural-sounding sentence than [1a]:

There’s lots of friends you’d never trust with your own children.

[1b]

However, we could make more lexical changes to increase or decrease the formality of this sentence. For example, replacing children by kids would make the sentence even more informal:

There’s lots of friends you’d never trust with your own kids.

[1c]

On the other hand, the following, with its use of there are and would, is a more formal variant:

There are lots of friends you would never trust with your own children.

[1d]

It is therefore possible to place the above sentences (leaving aside [1a]) on a scale from most to least formal in the following order:

There are many friends to whom one would hesitate to entrust one’s own children.	[1]
There are lots of friends you would never trust with your own children.	[1d]
There’s lots of friends you’d never trust with your own children.	[1b]
There’s lots of friends you’d never trust with your own kids.	[1c]

However, it is difficult to be precise about degrees of formality and informality, so that we often have to be content with relative phrases such as <rather formal> or <rather informal>.

  48   One reason for this vagueness is that formality, as a scale, can be applied on the one hand to aspects of the situation in which communication takes place, and on the other hand to features of language which correlate with those aspects. There is a two-way relation here: not only does situation influence the choice of language, but choice of language influences situation – or, more precisely, the nature of the situation as perceived by the speaker and hearer. Thus, someone answering the phone with the <very formal> question To whom am I speaking? would, by that very utterance, establish a more formal relationship with the other speaker than if the question had been Who am I speaking to?

Formality of vocabulary and grammar

  49   In English there are many differences of vocabulary between formal and informal language. Much of the vocabulary of formal English is of French, Latin, or Greek origin. In contrast, informal language is characterized by vocabulary of Anglo-Saxon origin. Compare:

<formal>	<less formal>
aid	help
commence	begin
conceal	hide
continue	keep on
conclude	end

Many phrasal and prepositional verbs (see 630–4) belong to informal English. Compare:

<formal>	<informal>
delete	cross off
encounter	come across
enter	go in(to)
investigate	look into
surrender	give in
renovate	do up

These differences show how formal and informal English provide the speaker with substantially different resources for communication, and again illustrate the difficulty of translating a sentence in one variety into an equivalent sentence in the other. The choice of appropriate grammar is intimately connected to the choice of vocabulary.

Impersonal style <impersonal>

  50   Formal written language often goes with an impersonal style, i.e. one in which the speaker avoids personal references to speaker and/or hearer, such as I, you, and we. Some of the common features of impersonal language are passives (see 613–18), sentences beginning with introductory it (see 542–6), and abstract nouns (see 67–9). All these features are illustrated in:

The author of the above could have written a more informal and less impersonal message as follows:

Polite and familiar language <polite>, <familiar>

  51   Our language tends to be more <polite> when we are talking to a person we do not know well, or to a person more senior in age or social position. Context also plays a role: for example, if we are asking a big favour, such as the loan of a large sum of money, this will induce greater politeness than if we were asking a small favour, such as the loan of a pen.

English has no special familiar pronouns or polite pronouns, like some languages (e.g. French tu/vous, German du/Sie corresponding to English you). But familiarity can be shown in other ways. Thus, when we know someone well or intimately, we tend to drop polite forms of language. Instead of using a polite vocative such as Mrs, Mr, or Ms we tend to use first name (Peter) or a short name (Pete) or even a nickname or pet name (Misty, Lilo, Boo-boo, etc.). Interestingly, present-day English makes little use of the surname alone, except in third person reference (e.g. Shakespeare, Bach, Bush) to someone one does not know personally, but by repute, such as a famous author, composer or politician.

  52   Polite language behaviour is most observable in such speech acts as requesting, advising, and offering (see 333–5, 347). Compare, for example, these requests:

Shut the door, will you? <familiar>

Would you please shut the door? <rather polite>

I wonder if you would mind shutting the door. <more polite>

The word please has the sole function of indicating politeness when one is making a request. But it has little effect in itself: to give a really polite impression, please usually has to be combined with devices of indirectness such as using a question, the hypothetical could or would, etc. (see 248, 333–4).

At the other end of the scale, slang is language which is very familiar in style, and is usually restricted to members of a particular social group, for example ‘teenage slang’, ‘army slang’, ‘theatre slang’. Slang is not easy to understand unless you are a member of a particular group or class of people. Because of its restricted use, and its short life, we will not be concerned with slang in this book.

Tactful and tentative language <tactful>, <tentative>

  53   Politeness and indirectness are linked with tact. To be tactful is to avoid causing offence or distress to another person. Sometimes tact means disguising or covering up the truth. A request, suggestion or piece of advice can be made more tactful by making it more tentative. Compare:

You’d better put off the meeting until tomorrow. <informal, familiar>

Look – why don’t you postpone the meeting until tomorrow? <informal>

May I suggest you postpone the meeting until tomorrow? <tactful, tentative>

Don’t you think it might be a good idea to postpone the meeting until tomorrow? <more tactful, more tentative>

In other cases tentativeness is simply an indication of speakers’ reluctance to commit themselves on given questions. For example, might just is a more tentative way of expressing possibility than may:

Someone may have made a mistake.

Someone might just have made a mistake. <more tentative)

Literary, elevated or rhetorical language <literary>, <elevated>, <rhetorical>

  54   Some features of English of limited use have a ‘literary’ or ‘elevated’ tone: they belong mainly to the literary or religious language of the past, but can still be used today by someone who wants to move or impress us. An example of elevated language comes from a speech by President George W. Bush:

We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail echoes the rhetoric of Abraham Lincoln [1] and Winston Churchill [2]:

But in a large sense we cannot dedicate – we cannot consecrate – we cannot hallow this ground.	[1]
We shall not flag or fail … We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, … we shall never surrender.	[2]

In addition to the variety labels <literary> and <elevated>, we occasionally use the similar label <rhetorical>. This signifies a stylized use of language, consciously chosen for an emphatic or emotive effect. A good example of this is the so-called ‘rhetorical question’ (see 305), which is meant to be interpreted as an emphatic statement:

Although we meet them in the literature of earlier periods, literary, elevated and rhetorical forms of language tend to be unusual in the English of today (and noticeable for that very reason). We will refer to them only very occasionally in this book.

Levels of usage: a map of variety labels

  55   Apart from the national varieties <AmE> and <BrE>, the different types of English we have discussed are related to one another, and might go under the general title of levels of usage. We might attempt to place them on a scale running from ‘elevated’ English at one extreme to ‘slang’ at the other extreme. But it is probably better to think in terms of three pairs of contrasting values, as shown:

This diagram represents only the most important levels of usage, ignoring the more restricted variety labels, such as <impersonal> and <elevated>. The features on the left tend to go together – likewise the features on the right – and this is conveyed by the vertical broken lines. But the lines are broken because the connection does not always hold: for example, it is possible to express oneself politely in spoken English, and it is possible to express oneself informally in written English.

The horizontal arrows represent scales of contrast. The common core of ‘unmarked’ usage occupies a middle area between the extremes of each of the three scales.

  56   In Parts Two and Three we make free use of the labels for varieties of English, because we feel it is important to give as full guidance as possible on the ‘appropriate use’ of English grammatical forms and structures. Some speakers of English may disagree with some of our judgements on the uses of these labels. This is because our knowledge of ‘levels of usage’ still remains, today, very much a subjective matter, depending on the perceptions of people who use the language. For example, an older English speaker might regard as <familiar> a form of language which might not seem so to a younger speaker. There are also differences of perception in different English-speaking countries. Thus, without considering these labels as descriptive of general standards of appropriateness, we would like you to use them for guidance in your own use of the language.

PART TWO

Grammar in use

SECTION A

Concepts

Referring to objects, substances and materials

  57   Through nouns and noun phrases, grammar organizes the way we refer to objects. We begin with concrete nouns, or nouns referring to physical objects and substances. (We use the word ‘object’ to refer generally to things, animals, people, etc.) Our first topic will be count and mass concrete nouns, and the various ways in which they are linked by of.

Singular and plural: one and many

  58   Count nouns refer in the singular to one object, and in the plural to more than one object. As the name implies, count nouns can be counted: one star, two stars, etc. (see 597–601):

Groups of objects

  59   We may refer to objects as belonging to a group or set, as follows:

Group nouns: a group (of stars)

  60   Nouns like group, set, and class, which refer to a set of objects, are called group nouns. Like other count nouns, group nouns may be singular or plural; e.g.

one group of stars	three groups of stars
a set of tools	two sets of tools
a class of insects	several classes of insects

Often a special group noun is used with certain kinds of objects:

an army [of soldiers]	a crew [of sailors]
a crowd of people	a gang of thieves, youths, etc.
a herd of cattle	a pack of cards
a flock of sheep	a constellation of stars
a bunch of flowers	a series of games

Many group nouns refer to a group of people having a special relationship with one another, or brought together for a particular reason: tribe, family, committee, club, audience, government, administration, team, etc. There is often a choice of whether to use a singular or plural verb (see 510), especially in <BrE>:

The audience is/are enjoying the show.

Notice also the difference between its stated aims (singular) and their stated aims (plural) in this example:

The government has lost sight of its stated aims.

The government have lost sight of their stated aims. <esp. BrE>

Part and whole: part of the cake, a piece of cake

  61   Parts of objects can be referred to by

Mass nouns: milk, sand, etc.

  62   Mass nouns (sometimes called ‘non-count’ or ‘uncountable’ nouns) are so called because they cannot be counted like count nouns (see 597). They typically refer to substances, whether

solid, e.g. butter, wood, rock, iron, glass

liquid, e.g. oil, water, milk, blood, ink, OR

gas, e.g. smoke, air, butane, steam, oxygen

Mass nouns are always singular: it makes no sense to ‘count’ the quantity of a mass substance which cannot be divided into separate objects. You can say:

There’s no milk in the refrigerator.

We had two cartons of milk to cook with.

BUT NOT: *There are no milks in the refrigerator.

*We had two milks to cook with. (see 66)

Some mass nouns, we might argue, should ‘really’ be count, because the ‘substance’ consists of separate things: furniture consists of pieces of furniture, grass of separate blades of grass, hair of separate strands of hair (or hairs), wheat of separate grains of wheat. But psychologically we think of such things as indivisible when we use a mass noun.

Note

On mass nouns which can be ‘converted’ into count nouns (two coffees, please), see 66.

Division of objects and substances

Unit nouns: a piece of bread, a block of ice, etc.

  63   As with single objects, masses can be subdivided by the use of nouns like part:

Part of the butter has melted.

In addition, there are many countable unit nouns, as we call them, which can be used to subdivide notionally a mass into separate ‘pieces’. Piece and bit <informal> are general purpose unit nouns, which can be combined with most mass nouns:

a piece of bread	a piece of paper	a piece of land
a bit of food	a bit of paint	a bit of air

There are also unit nouns which typically go with particular mass nouns:

a blade of grass	a sheet of paper
a block of ice	a speck of dust
a pile of rubbish	a bar of chocolate
two lumps of sugar	a length of new rope
several cups of coffee	a fresh load of hay

As with part nouns, unit nouns are linked to the other nouns by of. Sometimes, the word for a container (cup, bottle, etc.) is used as a unit noun, as in a cup of tea, a bottle of wine.

Nouns of measure: a kilo of flour, etc.

  64   Another way to divide a mass into separate ‘pieces’ is to measure it off into length, weight, etc:

DEPTH:	a foot of water	AREA:	an acre of land
LENGTH:	a yard of cloth		a hectare of rough ground
	20 metres of rope		12 square miles of woodland
WEIGHT:	an ounce of low fat spread	VOLUME:	a pint of beer
	a kilo of flour		a litre ‖ liter of milk

Species nouns: a type of, etc.

  65   Here is another type of division: nouns like type, kind, sort, species, class, variety can divide a mass or a set of objects into ‘types’ or ‘species’:

Teak is a type of wood.

A Ford is a make of car.

A tiger is a species of mammal. <rather formal>

We usually place adjectives and other modifiers before the species noun rather than the noun which follows of:

a Japanese make of car (NOT *a make of Japanese car)

a delicious kind of bread

Notice that the second noun, when count, usually has no indefinite article: a strange kind of mammal (NOT *a strange kind of a mammal).

In <informal> English, there is a mixed construction in which the determiner (if any) and the verb are plural, although the species noun is singular:

These kind of dogs are easy to train. <informal>

The normal construction is:

This kind of dog is easy to train.

Nouns which can be both count and mass

  66   Quite a number of nouns can be both count and mass (see 597). Wood, for instance, is count when it refers to a collection of trees (= a forest), and mass when it refers to the material of which trees are composed:

We went for a walk in the woods. [count]

In America a lot of the houses are made of wood. [mass]

Many food nouns are count when they refer to the article in its ‘whole’ state, but are mass when they refer to the food in the mass, e.g. as eaten at table:

	There was a huge cake in the dining room.
BUT:	‘Let them eat cake’, said the queen.
	She began peeling potatoes.
BUT:	She took a mouthful of potato.
	Do we have enough food for the weekend?
BUT:	Some of the tastiest foods are pretty indigestible.
	I’d like a boiled egg for my breakfast.
BUT:	I’d prefer some scrambled egg on toast, please.

In other cases English has a separate count noun and a separate mass noun referring to the same area of meaning:

Count	Mass
Do you have a fresh loaf?	Do you have some fresh bread?
Would you like a meal?	Would you like some more food?
She’s looking for a new job.	She’s looking for some interesting work.
There are too many vehicles on the road.	There is too much traffic on the road.

Sometimes words which are usually mass nouns are ‘converted’ into count unit nouns or count species nouns:

Two more coffees, please. (= cups of coffee)

Current London auctions deal with teas from 25 countries. (= kinds of tea)

Occasionally the opposite happens: count nouns are ‘converted’ into mass nouns after a noun of measure: a few square metres‖meters of floor; a mile of river.

Concrete and abstract

  67   Abstract nouns refer to qualities (difficulty), events (arrival), feelings (love), etc. Just like concrete nouns, abstract nouns combine with part nouns (part of the time), unit nouns (a piece of information), and species nouns (a new kind of music). Abstract nouns can be either count or mass, even though these notions cannot be understood in a physical sense.

In general, abstract nouns can more easily be both ‘count’ and ‘mass’ than concrete nouns. Nouns referring to events and occasions (talk, knock, shot, meeting, etc.) are usually count:

There was a loud knock at the door.

The committee has had three meetings.

But talk (together with other nouns like sound, thought) can also be a mass noun:

I had a long talk with her. [count]

In the country we now hear talk of famine. [mass]

I couldn’t hear a sound. [count]

These modern planes can fly faster than sound. [mass]

What are your thoughts on this problem? [count]

He was deep in thought. [mass]

Other abstract nouns tend to be mass nouns only: honesty, happiness, information, progress, applause, homework, research, etc. (see 597):

Her speech was followed by loud applause.

I have some homework to finish.

We offer information and advice.

Wealth did not bring them happiness.

  68   But again, many such nouns (e.g. experience, difficulty, trouble) can be either mass or count (with some difference of meaning):

	We had little difficulty convincing him. [mass]
BUT:	He is having financial difficulties. [count]
	He is a policeman of many years’ experience. [mass]
BUT:	Tell me about your experiences abroad. [count]
	I have some work to do this evening. [mass noun work = labour, activity]
BUT:	They have played two works by an unknown French composer.
	[count noun work = artistic or musical works]

Some nouns are mass nouns in English, but not in some other languages. Examples are advice, information, news, shopping:

Can you give me some good advice on what to buy here?

Do you have any information about the airport buses?

What’s the latest news about the election?

The department stores stay open for evening shopping.

Partition and division with abstract nouns:a useful bit of advice

  69   Part with abstract nouns is illustrated by:

Division is illustrated in these phrases:

Unit nouns:	We had a (good) game of chess.
	He suffered from (terrible) fits of anger.
	There was a (sudden) burst of applause.
	Let me give you a (useful) bit of advice.
	Here’s an (interesting) item of news. (ALSO: a news item)
	This translation is one of her best pieces of work.
Time (period) nouns	(the equivalent of measure nouns, for abstractions):
	three months of hard work
	(ALSO three months’ hard work, 107)
Species nouns:	a(n exciting) type of dance
	a (strange)kind of behaviour ‖ behavior

Amount or quantity

Amount words (or quantifiers) (see 675–80): all, some, etc.

  70   Amount words like all, some and none can be used with both count and mass nouns.

(A) Used with singular count nouns like cake, house they are equivalent to part nouns:

(B) Used with plural nouns like stars:

(C) Used with mass nouns like land:

Note these relations of meaning between all, some and none:

Some of the stars were invisible.	= Not all (of) the stars were visible.
None of the stars was visible.	= All (of) the stars were invisible.

Further examples:

Some of the patients will have pain when they come to hospital.

(i.e. Others will not)

None of their attempts so far has been wholly successful.

(i.e. All attempts have been unsuccessful.)

  71   Amount words specify more precisely the meaning ‘some’:

A large quantity

A small quantity

Not a large quantity

Notice that few and little without a have a negative bias. Compare:

A few (= a small number, some of) of the students pass the examination.

Few (= not many) of the students pass the examination.

Other words of quantity or amount:

Two/three (and other numerals, see 602) of our best players have been injured.

Half (of) the money was stolen.

More of your time should be spent in the office. (ALSO: less of your time)

Most of our friends live locally.

Several of the paintings (= ‘slightly more than a few’) are from private collections.

Note

With a/the majority of and a minority of (both <rather formal>) it is normal to use plural and group nouns (on concord with the verb in these and similar cases, see 510):

The majority of the farmers are the sons and grandsons of farmers. (= Most of the farmers …)

Only a minority of women feel able to report such attacks to the police. (= fewer than half …)

Many and much; a lot of, lots of

  72   Many and much are often used in combinations with as, too, so (as many/ much as, too many/much, so many/much) and in questions (how many/much?). Compare the count and mass words in the questions and answers below:

Indefinite use of amount words

  73   For the amount words above there is a definite ‘total’ (shown by the circles in the diagrams in 70) within which amounts are to be measured. Now we look at the general (indefinite) use of amount words, where no total is given. Here the amount word is used as a determiner e.g. most people (see 522), and of and the are generally omitted. (But of occurs with a lot of, a great deal of, a number of, lots of, etc., as in a lot of fun, a number of people, even where the following expression is indefinite.)

Count

All crimes are avoidable. (i.e. all of the crimes in the world)

We didn’t buy many things.

Mass

All violence is avoidable.

We didn’t buy much food.

Count

All pupils should learn to ski.

We saw several snakes down by the river.

Most men don’t know how to dance.

Few new writers have their first story accepted.

I want to ask Mr Danby a few questions.

I think people catch fewer colds these days.

Mass

You’ll do a lot better with less food in your stomach.

Plants in plastic pots usually need less water than those in clay pots.

The village can provide no food for the refugees.

It will take a little time to clear up the mess.

Put a few pieces of butter on top of the vegetables.

In <informal> style, a lot of (or lots of) is preferred to many or much in positive statements:

Many patients arrive on the surgical ward as planned admissions. <formal>

You find a lot of nurses have given up smoking. <informal>

There’s lots of spare time if you need it.

But in questions and after negatives (very) many and much are not restricted to <formal> English:

Words of general or inclusive meaning

  74   All, both, every, each, and (sometimes) any are amount words of general or inclusive meaning. With count nouns, all is used for quantities of more than two, and both for quantities of two only:

The western is a popular kind of movie with both sexes and all ages.

Every, each

  75   Words like every and each can be called distributive, because they pick out the members of a set or group singly, rather than look at them all together. Apart from this difference, every has the same meaning as all:

All good teachers study their subject(s) carefully.	[1]
Every good teacher studies his or her subject carefully.	[2]

The ‘distributive’ meaning of every shows in the use of singular forms teacher, studies, his or her in [2]. (However, see 96 on the use of he or she, his or her, they, their etc.)

  76   Each is like every except that it can be used when the set has only two members. Thus each (unlike all and every) can sometimes replace both with little difference of meaning:

Note also the difference between:

She complimented each/She complimented each/every member of the winning team.every member of the winning team.	[3]
She complimented all (the) members of the winning team.	[4]

Whereas [3] suggests that she spoke to each member of the team separately, [4] suggests that she made one speech, addressing all members of the team at once. Like every in meaning are everyone, everybody, everything, and everywhere.

Any, either

  77   The most familiar use of the determiners any and either is in negative sentences and questions (see 697–9), but here we consider them as inclusive words. Any can sometimes replace all and every in positive sentences:

These days any young man with brains can do very well.

Any new vehicle has to be registered immediately.

Here any has the same inclusive meaning as all and every in [1] and [2]. But any means something different in:

You can paint the wall any colour you like.

Any colour means ‘red or green or blue or …’, while every colour means ‘red and green and blue and.…’ Any means ‘it doesn’t matter who/which/ what … one chooses’.

  78   When there are only two objects or people, either is used instead of any:

You could ask either of my parents. (= either my father or my mother)

Compare the use of negative neither for two objects (see 379, 584):

Neither of my parents is keen on rock music.

  79   Any can also be used with mass nouns and plural count nouns:

Àny land is valuable thése days.

You’re lucky to find àny shops open on Sǔnday.

As shown here, any often takes nuclear stress (see 36). Like any are anyone, anybody, anything, anywhere, anyhow, anyway and <informal AmE> anyplace:

Anyone will tell you the way. (= Whoever you ask, he or she will …)

He will eat anything. (= He will eat whatever you give him.)

Scale of amount

  80   We can order the most common amount words roughly on a scale, moving from the inclusive words at the top, to the negative words at the bottom:

(Any we place separately, because its main use, in negative and interrogative contexts, does not fit into this scale.)

  81   Positions on a scale of amount can be expressed not only through the words already discussed (which are determiners or pronouns) but by pronouns like everybody, everything, and by adverbs of frequency (always), degree (entirely), etc. We show some of the different areas of meaning in the table opposite.

Of the columns of the diagram, A–D represent noun phrases, and E–G represent adverbials (to be dealt with later in 449–63). The rows are in ascending order of amount, from the inclusive word all to the noncommittal word any. Here are some examples labelled according to their position in the table opposite:

A1	All stress increases the body’s need for nutrients.
B1	All faculty members were given bonuses.
B2	Are there many other names which come to mind?
B3	Some of these patients will be nursed in a surgical ward.
C6	Nobody was reported injured. / No one was hurt.
C7	Anyone would be astonished to see the amount of public money wasted.
D6	Nothing has yet been decided.
D7	He would do anything to please her.
E3	You ought to come over to Cambridge sometimes.
E4	Cook the vegetables slowly, stirring occasionally.
E5	Margotte rarely turned on the television set.
G5	He sounded terrified and I could hardly blame him.

Definite and indefinite meaning: the, a/an, zero

  82   When we use the definite article the we presume that both we and the hearer or reader know what is being talked about: the dog, the race. Most of the words we have considered in 70–81 are indefinite; but if we want to express indefinite meaning without any added meaning of amount, etc, we use the indefinite article a/an (with singular count nouns), or the zero indefinite article with mass nouns or plural count nouns (see 597):

Would you like a drink?

Do you like chocolate?

Uses of the definite article

To express definite meaning we use the definite article the. There are four main cases.

Unique use of the

  83   When the object or group of objects is the only one that exists (or has existed): the stars, the earth, the world, the sea, the North Pole, the equator, the Renaissance, the human race:

The North Pole and the South Pole are equally distant from the equator.

This unique use of the also arises where what is referred to is ‘understood’ to be unique in the context: the sun, the moon, the kitchen, the town-hall, the Queen, the last President, etc. We could, if we wanted, make the definite meaning clear by modification after the noun (the moon belonging to this earth, the kitchen of this house, the Queen of this country, etc.), but this would normally be unnecessary.

Back-pointing use of the

  84   When identity has been established by an earlier mention (often with an indefinite article):

Forward-pointing use of the

  85   When identity is established by a modifier, such as a relative clause or an of-phrase (see 641) that follows the noun:

The woman who answered the door helped Jack into the room.

The wine of France is the best in the world.

The discovery of radium marked the beginning of a new era of medicine.

Conventional use of the (for institutions, etc.): the radio, the paper

  86   When reference is made to an institution shared by the community: the radio, the television, the telephone, the newspaper, the paper, the train:

I read in the paper the next day that he’d been killed by burglars.

We’ll maybe go to Glasgow this week on the train.

Most cases of this institutional use are connected with communications and transport. Sometimes (see 475) the article may be omitted with this use:

What’s on (the) television tonight?

Note

After a preposition, the is used before parts of the body in constructions like these:

She looked him in the eye and said ‘No’.

Lev smiled and shook me by the hand.

Usually, in such cases, the direct object refers to the person who ‘owns’ the body-part (see 624).

Generic use of articles

  87   The also has a generic use, referring to what is general or typical for a whole class of objects. This is found with count nouns:

The tiger is one of the big cats; it is rivalled only by the lion in strength and ferocity. The tiger has no mane, but in old males the hair on the cheeks is rather long and spreading.

[1]

Here the tiger indicates tigers in general, not one individual. Thus [1] expresses essentially the same meaning as [2] and [3]:

Tigers have no mane.	[2]
A tiger has no mane.	[3]

[2] is the generic use of the indefinite plural form; [3] is the generic use of the indefinite singular. When we are dealing with a whole class of objects as here, the differences between definite and indefinite, singular and plural, tend to lose their importance. But there is a slight difference in the fact that the tiger (generic) refers to the species as a whole, while a tiger (generic) refers to any member of the species. We can say:

The tiger is in danger of becoming extinct.

Tigers are in danger of becoming extinct.

BUT NOT: *A tiger is in danger of becoming extinct.

Specific versus generic meaning

  88   In contrast to the generic use of the, all the other uses (see 83–6) may be called specific. For mass nouns, there is only one generic form, which has a zero article:

Water is oxidized by the removal of hydrogen, and oxygen is released.

The ways of expressing generic meaning with count and mass nouns are shown in the table:

As the table implies, the is always specific with mass nouns (the water) and also with plural nouns (the tigers) (with the exception of some nationality words, see 579). The following examples show generic meaning with three types of noun:

In specific use, these nouns take the.

Specific Use	Generic Use
Pass the butter, please.	Butter is expensive nowadays.
The acting was poor, but we enjoyed the music.	Dancing and music were her hobbies.
Before you visit Spain, you ought to learn the language.	The scientific study of language is called linguistics.
Come and look at the horses!	‘I just love horses,’ said Murphy.

  89   Notice that English tends to treat mass nouns and plural nouns as generic when they have a modifier before them (Chinese history). But when they are followed by a modifier, especially by an of-phrase, the normally has to be present (the history of China). Compare:

Chinese history	the history of China
American social life	the social life of America
early mediaeval architecture	the architecture of the early middle ages
animal behaviour	the behaviour of animals

The tendency is strong with abstract mass nouns. It is less strong with concrete mass nouns and plural nouns. We can omit the in

eighteenth-century furniture	(the) furniture of the eighteenth century
tropical birds	(the) birds of the tropics

Compare:

Generic the with adjectives, nationality nouns, and group nouns

  90   Adjectives are used with generic the:

Other words of definite meaning

  91   Apart from common nouns (i.e. count and mass nouns) with the, the following words have definite meanings:

Proper nouns (see 667): Susan, Chicago, Tuesday, Africa, etc.

Personal pronouns (see 619): I, we, he, she, it, they, you, etc.

Pointer words or demonstratives (see 521): this, that, these, those

We will deal with these in turn, bearing in mind the types of definiteness already discussed (see 83–6).

Proper nouns

  92   Proper nouns are understood to have unique reference: Africa refers to one particular continent, and Susan (in a given conversation) refers to one particular person. Here no the comes before the proper noun (see 667), because definite meaning is ‘built into’ the noun itself. This also normally applies when a proper noun is the first word in a two-word name, such as Harvard University, Oxford Street.

  93   But when proper nouns change into common nouns, the can be used. This happens, for example, when we need to distinguish two or more things of the same name.

the Susan next door (i.e. not the Susan who works in your office)	[4]
the Venice of story books (i.e. not the Venice of reality)	[5]

In [5], we distinguish not two places of the same name, but two aspects of the same place. The is also sometimes used before modifiers + noun (the young Catherine, the future President Kennedy), but with place-names it is generally left out: Ancient Greece, eighteenth century London, upstate New York.

In a similar way proper nouns sometimes change to plural:

I know several Mr Wilsons. (= ‘people called Mr Wilson’)

He was a close friend of the Kennedys. (= ‘the family named Kennedy’)

A proper noun may also sometimes follow the indefinite article:

A man called Wilson murdered a Mrs Henrichson because she refused to rent him a room.

This means ‘a certain Mrs Henrichson’ (a person you won’t have heard of).

Third person pronouns

  94   Third person pronouns (he, she, it, they) are usually definite because they point back to a previous mention. In a sense, they ‘replace’ an earlier noun phrase:

Concrete nouns are replaced by he, she, it, or they as follows:

  95   He and she are used for animals when we think of them as having the personal qualities of human beings (e.g. family pets):

Nemo, the killer whale, who’d grown too big for his pool on Clacton Pier, has arrived safely in his new home in Windsor safari park.

It is otherwise used for animals, and sometimes for babies and very young children, especially when their sex is unknown:

In the farmyard a dog in its kennel was barking loudly.

In her arms lay the delicate baby, with its deep blue eyes.

Mass nouns and singular abstract nouns are replaced by it:

I’ve washed my hair, and it won’t keep tidy.

Life today is so busy that its true meaning often eludes us.

Note

She is sometimes used

Referring to male and female

  96   When a human noun is replaced by a pronoun and the sex is not known or specified, traditionally he is used rather than she:

A martyr is someone who gives up his life for his beliefs.

However, nowadays this bias towards the male term is widely avoided, and he or she (or him or her, etc.) is often used instead:

A martyr is someone who gives up his or her life for his or her beliefs.

It’s the duty of every athlete to know what he or she is taking to eat and drink.

As the first of these examples shows, however, he or she (etc.) can have an awkward effect, especially if repeated. Another method of avoiding sex bias, well established in <spoken English>, is the singular use of they:

A martyr is someone who gives up their life for their beliefs.

This ‘ungrammatical’ mixing of singular and plural is making its way into <informal> writing, although those with a strict sense of grammar avoid it. Since none of the above alternatives is entirely satisfactory, it is often possible to avoid the problem of sex-neutral third-person reference by changing from the singular to the plural:

Martyrs are people who give up their life/lives for their beliefs.

Here, of course, the use of they causes no problem in itself, although indirectly it may cause other problems, such as whether to use life or lives in the above example.

Note

Other solutions to the problem of how to avoid male bias include the use of the subjective pronoun form s/he, the use of she or he, and the use of she as a sex-neutral pronoun. The mixed form s/he is convenient in writing, but has the limitation of not having any oblique forms such as *s/him or *s/his. Another disadvantage is that its pronunciation is not distinguishable from that of she.

First and second person pronouns: I, we, you

  97   The first and second person pronouns have reference to the situation as follows:

First person:

I (me, my, mine, myself)	‘the speaker’
we (us, our, ours, ourselves)	‘a group of people, including the speaker’

Second person:

you (your, yourself, yourselves)	a ‘the hearer’ (singular)
	b ‘a group of people, including the hearer but excluding the speaker’ (plural)

We sometimes includes the hearer (= ‘you and I’), and sometimes excludes the hearer:

Let’s go back to the bar now, shall we? [‘inclusive we’: let’s = let us] (see 498)

We’ve enjoyed meeting you. [‘exclusive we’]

Inclusive we is often used by writers of books:

In this section we shall consider a few examples …

Let’s look at this in further detail …

Generic use of pronouns: one, you, they

  98   Three pronouns have a generic use, in reference to people in general.

Pointer words: this, that, etc.

  99   We use the term pointer words for words like the demonstrative this and that, which refer by pointing to something in the context. They can have three different uses.

This identifies something near the speaker (either physically, in terms of space or time, or psychologically). That identifies something not so near the speaker.

  100   We may separate two classes of pointer words, those related to this (and having the ‘near’ meaning) and those related to that (and having the ‘distant’ meaning).

This and that can replace each other with no difference of meaning in back-pointing, but this is commoner in <formal> English. For forward-pointing, only this, and the this-type words these, here, and thus can be used (but see 101):

Notice the opening and close of a radio message or news bulletin:

Here is what the message said: Please leave this room as tidy as you found it. [forward-pointing]

And that’s the end of the news. [back-pointing]

  101   Those is forward-pointing when its meaning is defined by a following modifier: those who are interested (= ‘people who are interested’) (see 521).

In <informal> style, this can ‘point forward’ in the sense of setting up a new topic for discussion, whereas that can ‘point back’ to some vaguely shared experience:

This can also be used <familiarly> to introduce something new in a narrative:

I was just coming out of the bank when this girl came up to me … (= ‘a girl I’m going to tell you about’)

Relations between ideas expressed by nouns

Relations expressed by of

  102   We have talked of of used in phrases of

Of is also used more generally to indicate various relations between the meanings of two nouns:

The ‘have’ relation

  103   Both of and with can indicate a relation of ‘having’. From the sentence ‘Noun1 has Noun2’ we can focus either on Noun2 or Noun1.

In the ‘Noun1 + preposition + Noun2’ construction, of is used where Noun2 is abstract (a performance of distinction, a country of enormous wealth), and with is used where Noun2 is concrete (a woman with a large family, a man with a beard).

The uses of the genitive

  104   A genitive (ending ’s or apostrophe only, see 530) can often be used with the same meaning as an of-phrase, especially where the genitive has human reference:

  105   In the following cases, the of-phrase is not normally used:

Choice between an of-construction and the genitive

  106   In general, the genitive is preferred for human nouns (the girl’s arrival) and sometimes also for animal nouns (horses’ hooves) and human group nouns (the government’s policy). Of is usually preferred for inanimate nouns and abstract nouns (the discovery of helium, the progress of science). In general, the genitive is also preferred for the subject-verb relation:

but of is preferred for the verb-object relation:

The subject function can also be indicated by a by-phrase. Hence the idea ‘The army defeated the rebels’ might be expressed in three ways as a noun phrase:

(But the rebels’ defeat of the army has to mean that the rebels defeated the army.)

The of-construction is also preferred, especially in <formal> English, to the genitive when the modifying noun phrase is long. We can easily say:

  107   Note two special cases of the genitive.

•  Time nouns are frequently used in the genitive:

this year’s crop of potatoes	two weeks’ holiday
a moment’s thought	today’s menu (OR the menu for today)

•  Place nouns are also frequently used in the genitive, especially if followed by a superlative:

Relations between people: with, for, against

  108   With often means ‘together with’ or ‘in company with’:

I’m so glad you’re coming with us.	[1]
Sheila was at the theatre with her friends.	[2]

Sentence [2] is not very different in meaning from

Sheila and her friends were at the theatre.

Without is the negative of with in this sense:

Sheila was ill, so we went to the theatre without her.

With, in a situation of conflict or competition, means ‘on the same side as’:

Remember that every one of us is with you. (= ‘on your side’)

Are you with us or against us?

For conveys the idea of support (= ‘in favour of’) and, like with, contrasts with against:

Are you for or against the President?

Note

Also notice: the fight against pollution, the campaign against inflation, etc. In contrast to its meaning above, with can convey the idea of opposition between two people or groups in fight with, argue with, etc: Stop arguing with me.

Ingredient, material: with, of, out of, from

  109   With verbs of ‘making’, use with for an ingredient, and out of or of for the material of the whole thing:

A fruit cake is made with fruit, but a glass jug is made (out) of glass.

Made from means that one is derived from another:

They lived in tents made from blankets.

Most paper is made from wood-pulp.

Of alone is used in postmodifying phrases: a ring of solid gold (i.e. … made out of solid gold), a table of polished oak (i.e. … consisting of polished oak). One noun in front of another can also refer to a material or ingredient: a gold ring, an oak table, metal rods, banana cake.

Restrictive and non-restrictive meaning

  110   Modifiers before or after a noun usually help to specify its meaning exactly:

(A)	(B)
the children	the children who live next door
a king	a king of Denmark
buttered toast	hot buttered toast
these books	these latest history books

In each case, phrase (B) tells us more precisely than phrase (A) about what the noun refers to. It narrows down or restricts the meaning of the noun, by saying what kind of children, king, etc. the speaker is talking of. This type of modifier is called restrictive.

  111   There is also a non-restrictive type of modifier which does not limit the noun in this way. Compare:

She loved to talk about her sister who lived in Pàris. | (RESTRICTIVE)	[1]
She loved to talk about her | who lived in Pàris. | (NON-RESTRICTIVE)	[2]

In [1], the relative clause is restrictive and tells us which sister she liked to talk about – we must assume she had two or more sisters. In [2], where the relative clause is non-restrictive, the speaker is talking about one sister – we assume she has only one – and gives us the extra information that she lived in Paris. This non-restrictive modification is typically signalled by a tone unit boundary (see 37) in <speech>, or a comma in <writing>, separating it from the preceding noun.

Non-restrictive adjectives

  112   Adjectives, as well as relative clauses, can be non-restrictive. The clearest cases are adjectives before proper nouns: since a proper noun already has unique reference, it cannot be limited any further by the adjective (but see 93): poor James, 73-year-old Mrs Cass, the beautiful Highlands of Scotland.

Non-restrictive adjectives are not so clearly marked by punctuation or intonation, and so ambiguities can occur:

The patriotic Americans have great respect for their country’s constitution.	[3]
The hungry workers attacked the houses of their rich employers.	[4]

We might ask: Does [3] mean that ‘all Americans have great respect’ (non-restrictive)? Or does it mean that ‘only some Americans (those who are patriotic, as opposed to those who are not) have great respect’? Does [4] refer to all the workers and all the employers, or just to the hungry workers (as opposed to those with enough to eat), and to the rich employers (as opposed to the poor ones)? These sentences could have either meaning, but the non-restrictive meaning is more likely.

Note

The ordering of modifiers can make a difference to meaning:

her last great novel	[5]
her great last novel	[6]

In [5] great is restrictive, while in [6] great is non-restrictive. The meaning of [5] is therefore ‘the last of her great novels’, and the meaning of [6] is ‘her last novel, which was great’.

Time, tense and aspect

  113   We turn now to meanings expressed by the verb phrase. Tense and aspect (see 740–2) relate the happening described by the verb to time in the past, present, or future.

States and events

  114   We must first give some attention to the different kinds of meaning a verb may have. Broadly, verbs may refer

She became unconscious.	[event]
She remained unconscious.	[state]

The difference between event and state verbs is similar to the difference between count and mass nouns. As we saw in 62 for count and mass, these categories are based not so much on the world itself, as on the way our minds look at the world. The same verb can change from one category to another, and the distinction is not always clear: Did you remember his name? could refer either to a state or to an event. To be more accurate, then, we should talk of ‘state uses of verbs’ and ‘event uses of verbs’; but it is convenient sometimes to keep to the simpler terms ‘state verb’ and ‘event verb’.

  115   The distinction between ‘state’ and ‘event’ gives rise to the following three basic kinds of verb meaning (illustrated in the past tense):

————	(1) STATE	Napoleon was a Corsican.
·	(2) SINGLE EVENT	Columbus discovered America.
………	(3) SET OF REPEATED EVENTS (HABIT)	Paganini played the violin brilliantly.

The ‘habit’ meaning combines ‘event’ meaning with ‘state’ meaning: a habit is a state consisting of a series of events. We often specify ‘state’ meaning by adding an adverbial of duration (161–5):

Queen Victoria reigned for sixty-four years.

We specify ‘habit’ more precisely by adding an adverbial of frequency (166–9) or an adverbial of duration:

He played the violin every day from the age of five.

(All three types of meaning can be clarified by an adverbial of time-when, see 151–60.)

To these three a further type of verbal meaning can be added:

Present time: I adore your drawings!

  116   The following are the main ways of referring to something which occurs at the present time:

(A) PRESENT STATE (the Simple Present Tense)

The state may stretch indefinitely into the past and future, and so this use of the simple present tense applies also to general truths such as A cube has eight corners.

  117   (B) PRESENT EVENT (the Simple Present Tense)

This use is rather specialized, being limited to formal declarations, sports commentaries, demonstrations, etc. In most contexts, one rarely has the occasion to refer to an event begun and ended at the very moment of speech.

  118   (C) PRESENT HABIT (the Simple Present Tense)

By ‘habit’ here, we mean a repetition of events.

  119   (D) TEMPORARY PRESENT (the Present Progressive)

Look! It’s snowing!	[1a]
The children are sleeping soundly now.	[2a]
They are living in a rented house (temporarily – for a short period)	[3a]

The meaning of the progressive aspect is ‘limited duration’. Compare the meaning of the simple present in these examples:

It snows a lot in northern Japan. (habit)	[1b]
The children usually sleep very soundly. (habit)	[2b]
They live in a rented house. (permanently)	[3b]

For single events, which in any case involve a limited time-span, the effect of the progressive is to emphasize the durational aspect of the event:

With states, the effect of the progressive is to put emphasis on the limited duration of the state of affairs:

  120   (E) TEMPORARY HABIT (the Present Progressive)

This use combines the ‘temporary’ meaning of the progressive with the repetitive meaning of the habitual present.

Other ways of referring to present time

  121   Three rather less important ways of referring to the present are these:

Here the past tense is an indirect and <more tactful> alternative to the simple present tense (see 136).

Past time: I’ve read your book – and I loved it!

  122   Along with the present-time meanings in 116–21 above there are similar past-time meanings: we have already illustrated some of these (see 115). But there is a special problem of past-time reference in English: the question of how to choose between the use of the past tense and the use of the perfect aspect. The past tense is used when the past happening is related to a definite time, in the past, which we may call ‘then’. Hence the simple past tense means ‘past-happening-related-to-past-time’.

He was in prison for ten years. (this probably means ‘Now he’s out’)

In contrast, the perfect aspect is used for a past happening which is seen in relation to a later event or time. Thus the present perfect means ‘past-happening-related-to-present-time’. For example:

He has been in prison for ten years. (this probably means ‘He’s still there.’)

The past tense: The parcel arrived last week

  123   The past tense refers to a definite time in the past, which may be identified by

a	a past-time adverbial in the same sentence,
b	the preceding language context, or
c	the context outside language.

(On these aspects of definite meaning, compare the use of the (see 83–5).) Examples of the three types are:

a	Chandra came to England in 1955.      The parcel arrived last week.
b	Joan has become engaged; it took us completely by surprise. (Here the past tense took can be used, because the event has already been identified in the first clause: has become …)
c	Did you get any letters? (Here we can use the past tense without language context, because it is understood that the mail arrives at a given time in the day.)

Note

[a]	Because of its definite meaning, a proper noun can provide the conditions for the past tense: Rome wasn’t built in a day. (a saying); Caruso was a great singer. (Here it is implied that Caruso is dead, or at least is no longer a practising singer.)
[b]	The past tense can sometimes be used when no definite time ‘then’ is easily apparent: Hello, how are you? They told me you were ill. Perhaps this is like c above, in that the speaker is thinking of a definite time in the past.

124 The past tense also implies a gap between the time referred to and the present moment:

Adverbials referring to a past point or period of time normally go with the past tense.

Kites were invented in China in the fifth century. (see 129)

The present perfect: I have written the letter

  125   Four related uses of the present perfect may be noted:

(A)  PAST EVENT WITH RESULTS IN THE PRESENT TIME

The taxi has arrived. (i.e. ‘it’s now here’)

All police leave has been cancelled. (i.e. ‘the police remain on duty’)

Her doll has been broken. (i.e. ‘it’s still not mended’)

(Compare: Her doll was broken, but now it’s mended.)

This is the most common use of the present perfect.

(B)  INDEFINITE EVENT(S) IN A PERIOD LEADING UP TO THE PRESENT TIME

(C)  HABIT IN A PERIOD LEADING UP TO THE PRESENT TIME

(D)  STATE LEADING UP TO THE PRESENT TIME

In these instances (except for (B)) the states, habits, or events may be understood to continue at the present time; for example, the first sentence in (D) assumes ‘… it is still open’.

Note

[a]	In sense (B), the present perfect often refers to the recent indefinite past: Have you eaten (yet)? I’ve studied your report (already). In such cases, <AmE> often prefers the past tense: Did you study John Grisham’s novels yet? I didn’t make any lunch yet.
[b]	There is an idiomatic use of the past tense with always, ever and never to refer to a state or habit leading up to the present:

The perfect progressive: I have been writing a letter

  126   The present perfect progressive (have been writing, etc.) has the same sort of meaning as the simple present perfect, except that the period leading up to the present typically has limited duration:

The perfect progressive, like the simple perfect, can suggest that the results of the activity remain in the present: You’ve been fighting! (i.e. I can see that you have been fighting, because you have a black eye, torn clothes, etc.). In such cases the activity has continued up to the recent past, not up to the present. Unlike the present perfect, however, the present perfect progressive with event verbs usually suggests an action continuing into the present:

The past perfect: I had written the letter

  127   The past perfect (simple or progressive) means ‘past in the past’; that is, a time further in the past as seen from a definite time in the past:

The past perfect is neutral as regards the differences expressed by the past tense and present perfect. This means that if we put the events described in [2] and [3] further into the past, they both end up in the past perfect [2a, 3a].

They tell me that …	the parcel arrived on April 15th.	[2]
	the parcel has already arrived.	[3]
They told me that …	the parcel had arrived on April 15th.	[2a]
	the parcel had already arrived.	[3a]

When describing one event following another in the past, we can show their relation by using the past perfect for the earlier event, or else we can use the past tense for both, relying on a conjunction (e.g. after, before, when) to show which event took place earlier:

In these pairs of examples, both sentences have roughly the same meaning. Each sentence indicates that the first happening preceded the second.

Perfect aspect with infinitives and participles: to have eaten, having eaten

  128   Infinitives and participles (see 738) have no tense, and so cannot express the difference between past tense and perfect aspect. Instead, the perfect expresses general past meaning:

He seems to have missed the point of your joke.	[1]
More than 1,000 people are said to have been arrested.	[2]
She is proud of having achieved stardom while still a child.	[3]
Lawes was convicted of having aided the rebels by planting bombs.	[4]

Sentence [1] could be alternatively expressed:

Sentence [3] could be otherwise expressed:

In [4], an alternative way of describing the happening would be to use the past perfect (see 127):

Lawes’s crime was that he had aided the rebels by planting bombs.

There is no difference in the form of the -ing form, although the implied time and aspect may change. The same is true, for example, for the perfect infinitive following a modal auxiliary:

He may have left yesterday.	(i.e. Perhaps he left yesterday)
He may have left already.	(i.e. Perhaps he has left already)

Adverbials in relation to the past and the present perfect

  129   Some adverbials go with the past and others with the present perfect, for example:

•  Either the past or the present perfect

The following pairs have almost the same meaning. However, in the first pair, the choice of the perfect suggests the speaker is speaking during the morning. The choice of the past, on the other hand, suggests that the morning is already past. But this is not a hard-and-fast rule.

State or habit in the past: used to and would

  130   Used to (see 485) expresses a state or habit in the past, as contrasted with the present:

Would (see 291) can also express a past habit, with the particular sense of ‘characteristic, predictable behaviour’. This use of would is typical of narrative style:

He would wait for her outside the office (every day).

The simple present tense with past meaning

  131   There are two special uses where the simple present tense is used with past meaning:

The progressive aspect

  132   The progressive aspect (see 119, 739–42) refers to activity in progress, and therefore suggests

The second element of meaning (B) is most evident in the past tense or in the present perfect:

With verbs referring to a change of state, the progressive indicates movement towards the change, rather than completion of the change itself:

The young man was drowning (but at the last moment I rescued him).

When linked to a non-progressive event verb, or to a point or period of time, the progressive verb normally shows that the activity or situation described by the verb is still in progress, i.e. has started but has not yet finished:

When I went downstairs they were (already) eating breakfast.

Other examples:

Verbs which take, or do not take, the progressive

  133   The verbs which most typically take the progressive are verbs denoting

  134   State verbs often cannot be used with the progressive at all, because the notion of ‘something in progress’ cannot be easily applied to them. The verbs which normally do not take the progressive include the following classes.

Verbs of perceiving

  135   Feel, hear, see, smell, taste. To express continuing perception, we often use these verbs with can or could:

I can see someone through the window, but I can’t hear what they’re saying. (NOT *I am seeing … *I’m not hearing …)

Verbs which have as their subject the thing perceived, such as sound and look, can also be included here:

Verbs referring to a state of mind or feeling

  136   Believe, adore, desire, detest, dislike, doubt, forget, hate, hope, imagine, know, like, love, mean, prefer, remember, suppose, understand, want, wish, etc.

The verbs seem and appear may also be included here:

He seems /appears to be enjoying himself.

Verbs referring to a relationship or a state of being

  137   Be, belong to, concern, consist of, contain, cost, depend on, deserve, equal, fit, have, involve, matter, owe, own, possess, remain, require, resemble, etc.

Notice that all these verbs are used without the progressive even when they refer to a temporary state:

Note

The verb have, when it is a state verb, does not go with the progressive: He has a good job. (not: *He is having a good job.) But have often goes with the progressive when it denotes a process or activity: They were having breakfast.

Verbs referring to an internal sensation

  138   There is a fourth group of verbs, referring to internal sensation (hurt, feel, ache, itch, etc.). These can be used either with the progressive or the non-progressive with little difference of effect:

Exceptions where the progressive is used

  139   The types of verb in 134–7 above may be labelled ‘non-progressive’ but there are special cases in which you hear them used with the progressive. In many cases like these, it can be said that the state verb has changed into an ‘activity verb’ (referring to an active form of behaviour). Thus, in place of see and hear, we have the equivalent activity verbs look (at) and listen (to):

But for smell, feel, and taste, there is no special activity verb, so these verbs have the role of expressing activity as well as state meaning:

In the same way, think, imagine, hope, expect etc. are sometimes used as ‘mental activity’ verbs:

The verb be can go with the progressive when the adjective or noun which follows it refers to a type of behaviour, or to the role a person is adopting:

Note

Another exceptional case is the use of the progressive with hope, want, etc. to express greater <tentativeness> and <tact>:

Future time

  140   There are five main ways of expressing future time in the English verb phrase. The most important future constructions are those which use will or shall and be going to (A and B below). Of these, will is by far the most common option, particularly in <writing>.

(A) Will or shall (see 483)

  141   The neutral future of prediction is expressed by will (often reduced to ’ll), or by shall (which is <rather formal and rare> and normally occurs only with a first-person subject):

Will is particularly common in the main clause of a conditional sentence (see 207–14):

But with personal subjects, will/shall usually suggests an element of intention:

(B) Be going to

  142   Be going to + INFINITIVE tends to indicate the future as a fulfilment of the present. It may refer to a future resulting from a present intention:

It may also refer to the future resulting from other causative factors in the present:

In sentences like these last three, be going to also carries the expectation that the event will happen soon.

(C) Progressive aspect

  143   The present progressive is used for future events arising from a present plan, programme, or arrangement:

(D) Simple present tense

  144   The simple present tense is used for the future in certain types of subordinate clause, especially adverbial time clauses (when she comes in) and conditional clauses (if she comes in) (160, 207):

I’ll get her to phone you when/if/after she comes in.

(Notice, though, that the verb in the main clause has will.) Some of the conjunctions which go with the present tense in this way are after, as, before, once, until, when, as soon as, if, even if, unless, as long as. That-clauses following hope, assume, suppose, etc. can also contain a verb in the present tense referring to the future:

Apart from these cases, the simple present is used (but not very often) for future events which are seen as absolutely certain, because they are determined in advance by calendar or timetable, or because they are part of an unalterable plan:

In these sentences, the speaker treats the event as a fact, and puts aside the doubt one naturally feels about the future. Compare:

(E) Will/shall + progressive aspect (Shall is <rather rare and formal>)

  145   Will (or ’ll or shall) followed by the progressive can be used in a regular way to add the temporary meaning of the progressive to the future meaning of the will construction (see 141):

Don’t call her at seven o’clock – they’ll be eating dinner then.

But in addition, we can use the will + progressive construction in a special way to refer to a future event which will take place ‘as a matter of course’, especially in the near future:

This is particularly useful for avoiding the suggestion of intention in the simple will-construction. It can therefore be <more tentative and polite>:

When will you come to see us again?	[4]
When will you be coming to see us again? <more tentative>	[5]

Sentence [4] is most likely to be a question about the hearer’s intentions, while sentence [5] simply asks the hearer to predict the time of the next visit.

Be to, be about to, be on the point of

  146   Some less common ways of expressing future meaning are illustrated here:

Be + to-infinitive signifies a plan for the future (especially an official arrangement), while both be about to and be on the point of both emphasize the nearness of a future event.

The future in the past

  147   We can put the future constructions already mentioned (except the simple present) into the past tense. We then arrive at a ‘future in the past’ meaning (i.e. future seen from a viewpoint in the past). But such a meaning, e.g. with was going to and was about to, usually conveys the idea that the anticipated happening did not take place:

Was/were to and would can refer to the fulfilled future in the past, but in this sense they are rather rare and <literary> in style:

After defeating Pompey’s supporters, Caesar returned to Italy and proclaimed himself the permanent ‘dictator’ of Rome. He was to pay dearly for his ambition in due course: a year later one of his best friends, Marcus Brutus, would lead a successful plot to assassinate him.

For a series of events like this, the ordinary past tense can also be used throughout: returned, … paid, … led, etc.

Note

The future in the past is often expressed by would, was going to, etc. in reported speech (see 264–8).

The past in the future

  148   The past in the future is expressed by will + perfect infinitive:

In subordinate clauses which allow the simple present for future time (see 144), the present perfect can express past in the future:

Phone me later, when you have finished your dinner.

Summary

  149   In conclusion, here is a table summarising some of the commonest meanings expressed through tense and aspect. The symbols used are explained first.

Time-when

  151   Notions of time-when are expressed either by tense, aspect, and auxiliaries in the verb phrase, or by adverbials. The adverbial can be of a number of types:

They fixed the radiator yesterday.	(ADVERB)
She phoned on Thursday.	(PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE)
Jennifer’s coming to lunch next week.	(NOUN PHRASE)
Twelve months ago he found himself without a job.	(NOUN PHRASE + ago, back, etc.)
We met several years ago while I was working in China.	(ADVERBIAL CLAUSE)

Such time expressions normally have an adverbial function in the sentence (see 451), but they can also act as the modifier in a noun phrase (the meeting yesterday; yesterday’s meeting), and occasionally as subject or complement: The day after tomorrow will be Friday.

Time-when adverbials answer the question ‘When?’ Thus all the adverbials listed above could answer the questions When did they fix it? When did she phone?, etc. It is most useful to begin the study of time-when with prepositional phrases.

At, on, in and during ‘

  152   At is used for points of time, and on and in for periods of time. In general, on is used for days, and in (or during) for periods longer or shorter than a day:

Clock time:	at 10 o’clock, at 6.30 p.m., at noon
Days:	on Sunday, (on) the following day
Other periods:	in/during the morning/April/the nineteenth century during (the) spring/2002/the Stone Age

Some examples:

For periods identified by their beginning and ending points, between is used:

Between 1918 and 1939 many people in the West lost their faith in democracy.

In and during

  153    In and during are more or less equivalent:

Only during can be used to mean ‘in the course of’ before nouns like stay, visit, meal, conversation, etc. referring to an event lasting some time:

Note

The preposition in (or within <more formal>) can have the meaning ‘before the end of’ a specified length of time:

Exceptions: at, on, and by

Omitting the preposition

  155   We almost always leave out the preposition before phrases beginning last, next, this, that; also before today, yesterday, tomorrow:

The phrases at this/that time, on this/that occasion are however exceptions:

In <informal> English, we also usually leave out the preposition in phrases pointing to a time related indirectly to the present moment, or to a time before or after a definite time in the past or future:

The preposition is also sometimes omitted directly before days of the week:

This omission is especially common in <informal AmE>.

Time relationships: before, after, by, etc.

Comparing prepositions of time

  157   Here, for comparison, are some examples of time phrases with a particular noun, night:

Measuring time: ago, from now, etc.

  158   Ago following a noun phrase of length-of-time measure means ‘… before now’: We met a year ago. For a similar measurement into the future, we use from now, or in + measure phrase, or in + genitive measure phrase + time:

In measuring forwards from a point of time in the past, only the first alternative is available:

Before and after, and the adverbs beforehand and afterwards, earlier and later, can also follow a length-of-time measure phrase:

Time-when adverbs

  159   There are two main groups of time-when adverbs (see 456):

[A]	again, just (= ‘at this very moment’), now, nowadays, then (= ‘at that time’), today, etc.
[B]	afterwards, before (hand), first, formerly, just (= ‘a very short time ago/before’), late (r), lately, next, previously, recently, since, soon, subsequently <formal>, then (= ‘after that’), ultimately <formal>, etc.

Group [A] identifies a point or period of time directly; Group [B] identifies a time indirectly, by reference to another point of time understood in the context.

Examples:

[A]	Prices in the UK are now the second lowest in Europe.
	She’s not in town much nowadays.
	Is the show just starting?
[B]	We’ll see the movie first, and discuss it afterwards.
	Lucy has/had just made the tea.
	Mr Brooking was previously general sales manager at the company.
	Anna was recently offered a job as top fashion designer for Harrods.
	At the next election he lost his seat, and has not turned to politics since. (= ‘since that time’)

Time-when conjunctions

  160   The main time-when conjunctions are when, as, before, after (see 156), while (see 164), as soon as, once, now (that):

Duration: for, over, from … to, etc.

  161   Phrases of duration answer the question ‘How long?’ Compare:

[A] When did you stay there?	[B] In the summer. (TIME-WHEN)
[A] How long did you stay there?	[B] For the summer. (DURATION)

The phrase in the summer here indicates that the stay was included in the summer period. The phrase for the summer indicates that the stay lasted as long as the summer period. For with this meaning can also precede phrases of length-of-time, e.g. for a month, for several days, for two years.

Omitting for: I’ll be at home all day

  162   The preposition for is often left out:

For must be omitted before all:

For is generally not omitted when it comes first in the sentence:

or when it follows a negative

Note

With the verbs spend, take and waste, for is never used:

Other uses of prepositions meaning duration

While, since and until

Adverbs and idioms of duration: always, recently, etc.

  165    The following adverbs and idiomatic phrases indicate duration:

Examples:

Since, lately, and recently indicate either time-when or duration according to the type of verb meaning:

Frequency

  166   Expressions of frequency answer the question ‘How many times?’ or ‘How often?’ The upper and lower limits of frequency are expressed by always (‘on every occasion’) and never (‘on no occasion’). Between these extremes, a rough indication of frequency (INDEFINITE FREQUENCY) can be given by:

(Compare 80–1.)

Being more precise about frequency

  167   A more exact measurement of frequency (definite frequency) can be expressed in one of the following three ways:

Note

There is an <informal> usage in which a plural time noun appears without any determiner: mornings, nights, weekends, Saturdays:

This can be classified either as a frequency or as a time-when phrase (see 155).

On … occasions

  168   Frequency phrases generally have no preposition: we say every week, not *in every week. One exception is when we use the word occasion(s), which is <rather formal>:

Abstract frequency

  169   Frequency phrases sometimes lose much of their time meaning, and get a more abstract meaning, referring to instances rather than times. Always and sometimes (for example) can be interpreted ‘in every case’, ‘in some cases’, rather than ‘on every occasion’, ‘on some occasions’:

Place, direction and distance

  170   Expressions of place and direction are mainly adverbials and postmodifiers. They answer the question Where?, so that all of the following could be answers to the question Where did you leave the bicycle?:

Place expressions occasionally also act as subject or complement of a sentence:

You will see that the range of grammatical structures and functions for expressing place is similar to that for expressing time (see 151). Also notice that many words (e.g. the prepositions at, from, and between) have related meanings in the two fields.

Prepositions of place

  171   Apart from general adverbs like here, there, and everywhere, the most important words for indicating place are prepositions. The choice of preposition is often governed by the way we see an object, i.e. whether we see it:

The difference between ‘surface’ and ‘area’ will be explained below (see 174–5, 183). We distinguish

Some prepositions (such as across) belong to more than one of these types.

At-type prepositions

172 (A)  The place is seen as a point (i.e. a location which is identified quite generally, without being thought of in terms of length, width, or height).

On-type prepositions: line

173 (B)  The place is seen as a LINE, i.e. is a place thought of in terms of length, but not breadth or height (depth):

1.  The wagon rolled back on to the road. (ALSO written onto)

2.  The company headquarters was at a town on the Mississippi River.

3.  We turned off Greenville Avenue onto Cherry Hill Road.

4.  They were a hundred miles off the coast of Sri Lanka.

5.  Another man tried to swim across the river.

6. The power was off in houses along Smith Street.

On-type prepositions: surface

174 (C)  The place is seen as a surface, i.e. is thought of in terms of length and width, but not height (or depth). (The surface need not be flat or horizontal.)

The surface is often the top of some object (on = on top of): He was lying on the bed; The book fell off the table.

1.  fall on (to) the floor

2.  the label on the bottle

3.  take the picture offs the wall

4.  a place off the map

5.  a walk across the fields

6.  looking through the window

Note

[a]  On etc. is also used for public transport:

[b]  Notice also an apple on a tree, the ring on her finger (where on = ‘attached to’ or ‘adhering to’)

In-type prepositions: area

175 (D)  The place is seen as an AREA (usually an area of ground or territory enclosed by boundaries):

1.  Crowds pour into the city from the neighbouring villages.

2.  They had found suitable lodgings for her in the town.

3.  The manuscript was smuggled out of the country.

4.  He stayed out of the district.

5.  We went for a walk through the park.

In-type prepositions: volume

176 (E)  The place is seen as a volume, i.e. is thought of in terms of length, width, height (or depth):

1.  The girl stepped into the hall.

2.  The food is in the cupboard.

3.  He climbed out of the water.

4.  He was out of the room.

5.  The wind blew through the trees.

Note

<BrE> has out of but <AmE> usually just out in expressions like this:

Inside, outside, within

  177   Inside and outside are sometimes used instead of in(to) and out of:

Within is a slightly more <formal> word than in, and often indicates a location bounded by limits, or by a given distance (within 3 miles, etc.):

Put in, put on, etc.

  178   Some common transitive verbs such as put, place, lay, stand are followed by on and in rather than on to and into:

Jane put each object back in its allotted place.

She placed her hand on Kate’s hair.

Also, arrive goes with at, on, or in: The train arrives at/in Brussels at 7.15. (see 171, 180)

Overlap between types of preposition

  179   We can often use different prepositions with the same noun. But in such cases, the meaning will be slightly different:

Overlap between at-type and in-type prepositions

  180   For towns and villages, either at or in is used, depending on point of view. At Stratford means we are seeing Stratford simply as a place on the map; in Stratford means we have a ‘close up’ view of the place as a town covering an area, and containing streets, houses, etc. A very large town or city is generally treated as an area: in New York. At New York would be used only in a context of worldwide travel:

Parts of cities also require in:

However, the directional words to and from are preferred to into, etc. even for large territories, except where those territories border one another:

At/in the post office, etc.

  181   For buildings or groups of buildings, you can use either at or in, but it is better to use at when thinking of the building as an institution – a place with a special function – rather than simply as a place. (Many such nouns with at take no definite article: at school, etc. – see 475.)

Shout to, shout at, etc.

  182   At is used instead of to when the following noun indicates a target:

Note also a similar contrast between:

Other contrasts of the same general kind are seen in:

Similar cases are: aim [a gun] at, hand [a ball] to.

Overlap between on-type and in-type prepositions: sit on/in the grass, etc.

  183   There is a difference between ‘surface’ and ‘volume’ in:

Another difference (between ‘surface’ and ‘area’) is seen in:

Position: over, under, in front of, behind, etc.

  184   Position is a relation between two objects, and can best be explained by a picture. Imagine a car standing on a bridge:

Prepositional adverbs of place: overhead, in front, etc.

  185   The following prepositional adverbs (see 660) or fixed phrases correspond to the prepositions of position we have just dealt with:

overhead	(over)	above	(above)
underneath	(under)	below	(below)
in front	(in front of)	behind	(behind)
on top	(on top of)	beneath	(beneath)

Examples:

Some other positions: between, among, opposite, etc.

Note

Some of these prepositions also have corresponding prepositional adverbs (see 185). Compare [1], [2] and [3] above with:

Motion from one place to another

  187   In 173–6, those meanings illustrated by diagrams 1, 3, 5, and 6 involve motion. The prepositions in the other diagrams (2 and 4) indicate state. Some different aspects of motion can be pictured as follows:

But the prepositions used to indicate position in 184–6 can also signify motion to the position concerned:

1	The bush was a good hiding-place, so I dashed behind it.
2	When it started to rain, we all ran underneath the trees.

Passage: We drove past the town hall

  188   The same prepositions can also be used, like through and across, to indicate motion towards, then away from a place (i.e. passage):

1	The photographers ran behind the goal-posts.
2	I crawled underneath the fence.

Other prepositions can be used similarly:

1	We drove by/past the town hall.
2	We passed over/across the bridge.
3	We turned (a)round the corner.

Around and round can also refer more generally to circular motion: (round is more common in <BrE>, and around in (AmE>):

Direction: up, down, along, across, etc.

  189   Up, down, along, and across/over represent motion with reference to a direction or axis:

The last sentence here does not necessarily mean that the street was on a hill: <informally>, we use up and down with practically the same meaning as along. (Downtown <AmE> means simply the central or business part of a town.)

Note

We can express repeated motion by joining two prepositions with and:

In such cases we can omit the noun phrase after the prepositions: They danced round and round.

Combining space and motion

190 •  Viewpoint: The preposition beyond makes reference not only to two objects, but to a third factor, the ‘viewpoint’, or place where the speaker is standing (in reality or in imagination):

We can also express ‘viewpoint’ by using across, over, through, past, etc. in a sense similar to their ‘passage’ or ‘direction’ sense (see 188–9):

the people (who live) over the road	a café round the corner
an office along the corridor	the garage past the
	supermarket
friends across the sea	the hotel down the road
the house through the trees	a man up a ladder

We can, if we like, specify the viewpoint by using a from-phrase: